Fumbling through my first time on Mercari

Hello.
The title says it all.

■　A playgirl's daughter is a playgirl

Since graduating from junior high, my daughter has been out playing every single day and is never home.
Saying "I have no money,"
she seems to have used up almost all of her New Year's money. I also gave her some startup funds disguised as a graduation gift, but she says that's gone too.
Saying "I want a part-time job,"
are you kidding me?
High school hasn't even started yet, her studies are going to get harder, and she says she wants to join a club, so what on earth is she talking about, you brat.

■　My daughter's decluttering

In preparation for starting high school, packages are arriving every day.
Gym clothes, textbooks, a tablet, school bags bought online, and other supplies. Plus clothes, bags, and accessories bought as graduation gifts by her grandfather (my father), who is in his late seventies and probably thinks he's going to die soon...

"Why don't you declutter?"

At my firm suggestion, my daughter decided to declutter.

"Mom, please throw all of this away."

Two 45-liter bags stuffed with clothes.
When I looked inside, there were clothes she'd only worn two or three times, bought on Takeshita Street in Harajuku, known as "dark-style," "sick-style," or "landmine-style"...

"Sorry. I'm not into this style anymore."

Yeah, I get it.
It's true that I was the one who forced her to wear them.
What used to be called Harajuku-style or Lolita-style somehow turned into "Toyoko-style" or "Kaiwai-style," so my daughter started avoiding them. Yeah, yeah, that can't be helped.

■　Starting Mercari too easily

Still, it's a waste.
If I took them to a second-hand shop, they'd probably only give me a few dozen yen.
Before, when I took three of my ZARA items in,

"During our 20% bonus purchase campaign, it's"72 yen"

they said, and I cried in the heart of West Tokyo.
The whole country probably cried for me too.

With that experience in mind, I skipped the second-hand shop, hung my daughter's clothes on random hangers, hooked them on a random wall, and took random photos.

They were shoddy photos from an Android phone, but I figured it would be lucky if they sold, so I immediately tapped "List" on Mercari, set a random price, used the AI to generate a random product description, and listed them randomly.

At this point, I was completely oblivious, having not read a single thing about "selling fees," "shipping costs," or "how to ship."

■　Sold 10 minutes after registering, and I'm in a panic

Anyway, I thought I wouldn't be able to handle the transaction quickly without installing the app and using the notification feature, so I logged into Mercari while elegantly eating lunch. Then, the check icon in the top right turned red.

“It has been purchased.”

Are you kidding me!!!
What am I supposed to do now!!!
And wait, there’s a question here!
And wait, it was purchased before I could even answer the question!

Flailing about

I acted exactly as that expression suggests.
My husband and daughter are both out, so what should I do...
In a panic, I contacted my 21-year-old son.
He’s a Mercari user who even sells the boxes for brand-name items.

“What should I do?”

“What did you sell?”

“Clothes.”

“Clothes, huh.”

I suppose he was at a loss for what to do with a mother who sold clothes, a high-difficulty item, for her first Mercari sale...
Deciding that asking my son was a dead end, I grabbed the item and rushed to the convenience store, panicking more and more.

■ Causing trouble for the foreign convenience store clerk

Anyway, I was panicking.
I had to complete the transaction quickly.
I couldn’t handle getting a bad rating.
To prevent that, I had to ship it fast, fast, fast.

Holding the raw item, I asked the clerk.

“U-um, I want to ship this via Mercari!”

I was urged to buy a special box, but,

“I-it won’t fit in the box...”

I tried to force it in and started bleeding... no, that’s not it, the box broke.
I panicked all by myself.
Panicking, panicking, panicking, I changed the shipping method on my smartphone, scanned the QR code at the convenience store again,

“I’m sorry. The previous one was a mistake, and this one is...”

I said, causing trouble for the foreign clerk.
Seriously, old lady, get a grip, read the terms and conditions properly before you start doing this; I really can’t stand annoying middle-aged women like this.

I thought to myself, as the store manager came out to help me.

■ Read the terms and conditions properly before you start

In the end, with 750 yen for shipping, 65 yen for the box, and several hundred yen in selling fees, how much profit is even left? There's almost nothing left!!!

I realized it's important to properly understand shipping costs, packing methods, and how to send items before getting started.

And when I saw my son, he told me,

"You don't have to send it right away. It's fine to wait two or three days. There's no need to rush."

O-oh, I see.
For some reason, I was in such a huge rush, thinking I had to ship it the moment it was purchased...
Understood, next time I'll take it slow and not panic.

Ding!

A-ahhhhh!
It-it was purchased again!
A-and this time it's a T-shirt!
Wait!
How am I supposed to send a T-shirt!
Wait!!!

So once again, I became the "flustered middle-aged lady" at the post office, just like I was at the convenience store. It was a good thing the post office was empty. They taught me so kindly, thank you so much.

So, all four items sold in four days.
The profit is negligible, but it's surprisingly fun.
After all, that "indescribable excitement" when something gets purchased is just irresistible.