When God closes a door....

One of my favorite sayings is "When God closes a door, he always opens a window".  And it seems that I never realize what the window was until much later.  After all of our financial struggles and just the day-to-day problems involved with running a business, we seem to have finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel.  We're not out, yet, but I think the worst is behind us.  That being said, this month proved to be another challenge for us, as a client did not pay an invoice on time and we found ourselves wondering how we would make the mortgage payment by its due date.  Well, it just so happened that I was sitting at my desk and surfing the new listings when 3 boxed dolls popped up, all from the same seller.  These dolls were truly NRFB (never removed from box) and in mint, untouched condition.  As you may well imagine, this is something of a rarity.  He had them all on buy-it-now for $175 each, so I snapped them up immediately and paid with credit (my rule being to only buy what I can pay off as soon as the statement comes).  So the dolls arrived and they were something that a collector usually only dreams of; pristine in every way.  I nearly fainted as I opened each box.  

I haven't sold a lot over the past month or two because ebay has been so very slow.  But it usually picks up again after the holidays and I didn't worry overmuch.  I went ahead and took the pictures and listed these dolls, putting the price on them that they would normally command, even though I knew I might end up lowering them after a bit.  Within 6 days, they all sold and my profit on the three was over $800.  It was only after I had paid the mortgage that I realized this was a window.  When I bought the dolls, we did not yet know that the client would be delaying payment.  When I listed them, I did know this and I also listed many other things with the dolls (things I had postponed listing for a while because ebay was so slow).  But as I drove home from the bank after making the payment (not late, thank you very much) I began contemplating the days that led up to me writing that check. I realized that, once again, God had opened a window for us, we just didn't recognize it until much later.  

I wish I could say I make these finds all the time; the truth is much more mundane.  Some weeks are really great and some weeks are not.  But this is not the first time I've been at the right place at the right time on ebay, and I am thankful to have the knowledge to be able to make this business work.  God has opened many of these "windows" for us through my ebay business over the last 10 years, and I am grateful for all of them.  

It's kind of funny because when I see a really good deal pop up in the listings, I have this truly visceral "gut" reaction that tells me to buy.  Maybe that "gut" feeling is just God unlatching the window and helping me open it.