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eWBNqp99CHcg~~_7.JPG "zee-chan"){kind=avatar}
@jt-libra wrote:But I find that there are so many good television programs and so many channels and platforms to choose from, that I've combined my eBay "job" with my #1 leisure pastime. I use a desktop with a very comfortable chair. And I have a big screen TV off to the left of me in the corner. I sometimes work 5 or 6 hours straight on eBay, or three or more 2-hour periods throughout the day (I have two active accounts and have just started a third) and while I'm listing, revising, etc., I'm watching all my favourite programs. I would watch them anyway so I may as well do something constructive at the same time. People who know me always look in the window of my den when they pass by and wave to me. If my den light stays on later than usual, the next time they see me, they'll say .... lots of sales last night? If only.
Oh this gave me my "smile of the day". That sounds like such a great set-up, 'jt'. It actually never occurred to me to watch my favourite shows (or a movie) while grinding away on listings. I don't think I'd be able to divide my attention that much, given the kind of work I usually do in addition to actually working on eBay. But I do have a set of portable speakers attached to my laptop (which is on a rolling kind of cart to the right of my sewing table) so I can have streaming music on all day as I work.
Since I'm my own designer/manufacturer, I'm usually bouncing up and down going back and forth to my drawing board (actually an old white 5' x 3' Ikea table-top propped up on two old 2-drawer filing cabinets), the surface of which is littered with rolls of artist's tracing paper, all my favourite mechanical pencils, rulers of every shape, length and size, French curves, line drafting pens, markers of every shade, pins on pincushions and in various containers, scissors in upright holders everywhere, rolls of muslin for draping, and stacks of labelled plastic project boxes all around each end of the table.
I have a floor lamp Ott-Light at one end of the table and a gooseneck lamp clamped on the far corner with a warm-white bulb in it (for good colour mixing). There are 4 large cabinets (thank you Canadian Tire!) around the walls stuffed and stacked with fabrics, interfacings, linings, laces and trims, thread of every colour, original antique patterns and publications, and books and binders full of reference material.
Under my L-shaped "sewing central" are two large plastic stackable drawers, chock-full -- but neatly organized, mind you -- of every imaginable sewing notion, button, and tool. And in the centre is my all-purpose worn old office swivel chair, so I can just spin around from one sewing machine to the other, and the laptop on the opposite side. (And stuffed in the closet are all the shipping and packing materials and boxes I use). All of this in a 12' x 14' space! It's basically very well organized happy chaos. Oh yes, and I have a window in front of my sewing desk that looks out over the trees.
When I'm not at the drawing board and/or sewing machine(s), then I'm running back and forth to one or the other of my mannequins to check fit, then back to the laptop to revise the pattern text. If I actually added it up, I probably spend more time on my laptop writing sewing instructions for my patterns than I do working on listings, but the nice thing is that once a pattern is done, it's finished for good. How many times can we say that about a listing? 
The very best part of my work is when I have a new design back from the print shop and ready to publish and list on eBay (and elsewhere) -- and better still when it sells! That makes it all worthwhile.
You know, it would be fun for the sellers here to share a description of their "command centre" set-up. I'll bet we'd have a lot of different and interesting ways of making our work space function for our eBay businesses.
"Do you have a life outside of ebay?"
It is all a matter of perspective. I never considered that eBay was "my life".
To me eBay was one of many suppliers of service needed to run my mail order business. It is no different than Canada Post used to ship purchases to my buyers or my internet supplier, or my website host where I keep tens of thousands of images or other venues used over the years to advertise my products to potential buyers both online and offline.
If a typical working day is eight hours, many of those hours were spent directly and indirectly on eBay.
That was not "my life", it was "my work".
Using the discussion boards to communicate with and try to help and assist other eBay members has generally been fun and educational. However, it is not a "life" as such. In fifteen years on eBay.ca I posted slightly more than 10,300 posts. That works out to only 2 a day (I know it may seem more than that at times but the numbers are what they are).
The "community" that existed here ten years ago is long gone. Most (not all) folks have moved to other social media (Facebook, etc...).
And life does go on (in retirement). 
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