Ebay – Here I Come!

A while ago I mentioned that I would try selling some things on eBay, and things are coming together with that.

One half of my office has been turned into an eBay processing center. I bought a huge container that my son has filled with toys that he said he no longer wants. I was going to just take toys when he was at school, but I decided to get him involved in the process and give him an idea of why we are selling things. To my surprise, he filled up that container pretty quickly. I thought he wouldn’t want to part with any of his toys.

I am starting with the toys, since Christmas is coming soon. I do have some clothes we no longer need, but I think I am going to donate those to St. Vincent de Paul. Gosh knows they helped to clothe my son the first few years of his life (they only charge $0.25/per item of children’s clothing!). They also were important when I obtained my first “professional job.” I didn’t have ANY dress clothes, and I was able to get almost a two-week wardrobe for under $25.

What to charge for shipping was always something holding me back from trying to sell on eBay. It seemed complicated. But, thanks to the US Postal Service and eBay joining forces, you can get free boxes for using to ship things, and the postage is a set price. My boxes came in a few weeks ago, and I am very impressed that they were free!

Today is a big cleaning day for us (time to get rid of clutter!), so I have another container set-up for other things to sell. By the end of the month I will be taking pictures of the items and listing them. It’s scary that if my items do not sell I will still have to pay a fee, but I guess that is a chance you take with eBay. I’m sure as time goes on I will learn more about how to have a successful listing.

Posted by Tricia on October 15, 2006 at 9:28 AM in Making Money | 6 Comments »
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Dawn responded:
Posted: October 16th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
I have a friend who used to sell on ebay, but now sells stuff on amazon. She says she gets more money for stuff especially books. I have not checked into it myself and dont know how it works. I figured that if you had a lot to sell it may be worth checking out.
Tricia responded:
Posted: October 17th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Dawn – I do have a lot of books that I could sell. Thanks for suggesting Amazon! I’ll have to take a peek at that.
Mandi responded:
Posted: October 17th, 2006 at 10:28 pm
Just remember to research the items that you are interested in selling. You can look up the item and in “Advanced Options” you can check mark the box “Completed Auctions”. That will only show you the auctions that have ended. If 40 people tried to sell the item at a low price and it didn’t sell, at least you will KNOW for sure to save your listing fees…

One other idea that I have used and gotten good feedback on was to use partially blown up balloons as packing. They weigh less and cost less for shipping…

I wich I had more ideas, but I normally sell things that will fit into envelopes.
Tricia responded:
Posted: October 17th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
Mandi – I have been wondering if there is a way to look at completed auctions. Thanks for the tip! And about the balloons that’s a great idea too. Thank you so much for sharing!
KIM responded:
Posted: October 18th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
DO YOU HAVE ANY “ONCE UPON A CHILD STORES” AROUND. THEY WILL GIVE YOU CASH FOR THE ITEMS YOU BRING IN THAT THEY ACCEPT.
Tricia responded:
Posted: October 19th, 2006 at 7:32 am
KIM – I’ve never heard of those stores. Where I live, we don’t even have one of those places where you can take things and they’ll sell on eBay for you (that I know of). It would be awesome if we had those “Once Upon a Child Stores.”