The joy of eBay!

I could get quite addicted to eBay. One day my husband will return home to find everything gone; clothes, furniture, children with just me smiling and feeling very pleased with myself, telling him what a lot of money I have made.

Over recent years, since our own personal economic downturn, eBay has been a bit of a lifesaver.  I have slowly but surely emptied the house of any unwanted items and at times, the extra money has helped us out of a few tight spots.  I have found that during the more affluent years, I amassed a large number of clothes that I hardly wore and some of those fetched a reasonable amount of money.  Handbags, shoes, scarves, jewellery.  Baby stuff is a real winner as so many people don't want to spend a lot on something that they are going to use for such a short time.

Children's clothes are good too.  I am also a big fan of the Next sale and often in the stampede to clear the rails, I have been known to get a tad carried away.  What I try to do now is not take the labels off clothes until I actually use them, that way they get a better price if I don't use them and decide to sell them.  Clothes that my little girl has been bought by other people are also a winner.  My little one is not a girlie girl.  She loves trousers and leggings and if I put her in a skirt she looks at me very strangely and asks me where her trousers are.  My mother in law buys loads of little two or three piece dress and cardi combinations in various shades of floral pink.  Most of those end up on eBay too.  I would also sell the boys stuff, but with eighteen months between them, the youngest has a lot of stuff handed down and after two lots of wear and tear, there is not a lot of life in those clothes.

My mum thinks I am a bit mercenary about it, but I see it as positive recycling.  By using eBay or other such sites, the benefits run both ways.  You are getting rid of stuff that you don't need and making a bit of money in the process, the buyers are buying what they want, often at a reduced price.  Every one's a winner.

Posting can be a bit of a hassle.  If like me you get completely obsessed and put lots of things on to all finish on the same day, the trips to the Post Office can be a nightmare.  I have a vague dislike of our main Post Office.  There is always a queue, the women on the counter are extremely slow and any of you with children will know how much fun a long queue with a small, bored child in a push chair can be.  However, for anything that can fit into a letter box, I prepay and print labels off through Paypal, which makes things a whole lot easier.

A lot of people have been moaning recently about the "hike" in selling fees.  They have increased, it's true, but for me, it is roughly ten percent of the sale value and if you put an item on auction, starting really low, the listing cost is low or even free in a lot of cases.  I know I get more selling things this way than if I did a car boot sale or sold things through the local paper. And anyway, it is so much more fun.  I am probably very sad, but I love those last couple of minutes when the savvy bidders place their bids.  Something that you thought was not going to sell for a lot can suddenly jump in those last few precious seconds and it can be quite exciting!  Yes, I am very sad.

The downside of course is that sometimes, you can have high expectations for an item and it go for 99 pence.  That is the risk you take with selling things like this. 

A friend of mine recently said that selling things on eBay was better than having sex.  I'm not sure that I would go quite that far... but it is good fun.  You should give it a try if you haven't done so already, but watch out, it can be very addictive.