The Light at the Old Cape Cod.
Photo by fandayou_0088

This is not an article about earning your fortune on eBay — though I’m sure there are people out there doing just that. Instead, I want to talk about how casual eBay use can help declutter and add ‘lightness’ to your life while adding another modest online income stream to your network of rivers and lakes.

Starting an eBay account was something I always planned on doing ’some day’. I’d browsed their website and found the start-up instructions confusing. I could have puzzled them out (and eventually did), but I kept putting it off. All the while, a few semi-valuable things sat in my house gathering dust with disuse. I felt weighed down by them — weighed down by ’stuff’.

Over time, simplicity has become more important to me in life, not just in blogging and business. I finally decided to do everything necessary to convert my unimportant belongings into income, which could be used to ends that were more important to me. Even now I’ve only made a few hundred dollars on eBay, but the process of adding lightness to my life and converting the unimportant into the important has been surprisingly rewarding.

What can you convert?

A better question is probably: what can’t you convert? eBay’s huge community means there is supply and demand for just about everything. I’ve sold used CDs, books, computer peripherals and DVDs — all pretty mundane — but I know people who’ve sold everything from bluestone bricks to a kitchen window to a vomit-stained mattress (which was described as ‘vomit stained’ in the listing — and listed as a joke — but someone still bought it for twenty cents!).

eBay’s payment scheme means that even if you suspect something won’t sell, it’s worth giving it a shot. A basic listing usually costs less than a dollar, and if your item doesn’t sell, that’s all you pay. If it does sell, eBay takes a small commission on the final value price.

Take a moment to think about some of the things you own but don’t need — things that are too good to give away, or too troublesome. Things you have thought about selling but were never confident you could find someone to buy. It’s time to start converting some of those things into income. As any wise financial planner will tell you, every little bit counts.

How does it all work?

Selling on eBay is actually a lot less confusing than it seems. Once you’ve signed up for an account, pick the least valuable item in your sell pile, and create a listing for it in the most appropriate category. It doesn’t matter if the item is used or imperfect, as long as you describe it accurately. The most important thing is that bidders know exactly what they’re getting, warts and all (if there are warts).

As a beginner seller, it’s best to limit your choices. Choose to either auction the item, or set a buy it now (fixed) price. Buy it now is best if you’re happy to sell the item for a bargain, or if you’re absolutely not willing to sell the item for lower than a certain amount. Starting an auction low can generate a lot of interest (which later drives the price up), but it can be risky if there’s not a lot of demand for what you’re selling. Without competition, your item is likely to go for a steal.

You can also set a postage price, which will be listed next to the cost of your item. I tend to undercharge for postage to help set myself apart from the other listings, but this is not a strategy everyone favors.

The final aspect of your setup is how you’ll be paid. I choose PayPal only for international sales but allow bank deposits for local sales. Bank deposits are an administrative pain but they do help ensure you’re not cutting out any potential buyers who don’t have a PayPal account.

When your item is won or bought, the buyer pays you, and you send the item (usually within a week). If you send the item in a timely fashion and it arrives as described, you can expect +1 positive feedback, which contributes to buyer and bidder trust. I’d suggest starting with items you estimate to sell cheaply (like used CDs) and working up to more expensive items, so you develop enough positive feedback that buyers don’t consider it a risk when purchasing from you.

And that’s eBay in a nutshell. You’ll learn more as you go, and if you start off selling a few cheap items, you can afford to make mistakes. Over time you’ll start to learn tips and tricks to help you get more out of the service.

5 Good Reasons to Start Dabbling in eBay

1. Declutter your home. Clutter is usually caused by a kind of decision paralysis: the clutter-causing items are too valuable to give away, but they’re also not needed. Your options are to sell them or ‘have’ them without using them. The selling option would be ideal, but you don’t know how to find a potential buyer — or you don’t have the time. Dabbling in eBay is a low-stress solution to the clutter dilemma.

2. Add more ‘lightness’ to your life. Lightness is a term I use in my own life and thoughts to describe simplicity in the things you own and the things you need. When you’re not weighed down by a whole bunch of ’stuff’ that needs to be minded and cared for — stuff that takes more than it gives — it’s hard to have an anywhere lifestyle. If you have less, it’s easier to take what’s important with you, and easier to leave things behind. I’m always looking for ways to have more lightness in my life.

3. Add another income stream. While the unwanted items I’ve sold have only amounted to a few hundred dollars, my online income comes from many different sources and every bit counts.

4. It’s easy. Creating a listing only takes a few minutes and, if you can resist the urge to check up on your items every few minutes, selling an item will rarely consume more time than it’s worth. Just make sure it’s not too hard to commute to a post office.

5. The time is right. If you enjoy eBay and see the potential to turn it into a side business, the time is certainly right to do so. The positive in the devaluation of the US dollar is that prices have not yet adjusted upwards, so buying cheaply in the United States and selling at a 50% - 100% markup worldwide is a viable option. Many buyers haven’t yet cottoned on to this and will only search for items in their local listings. It’s possible to buy certain items in the US, mark up the price by 80%, and still come under RRP in Australia, for example.

You’d also be surprised at how few hoops you have to jump through to get wholesale prices from manufacturer websites if you’re running an eBay store — but that’s another article all-together!

Do you dabble in eBay? Feel free to describe how you use it, or pimp your auctions, in the comments below.