ebaybaybay

Why have I waited so long to discover the goodness that is ebay????? I could kick myself at the thought of all the valuable treasures I have dropped off at savers,  just happy to get it out of my house, when all along, I could have been earning cold hard cash. I don't know what my problem was. I think the shipping is what scared me away. I was under the impression that I needed to somehow weigh the items I was selling and be precise and accurate and that it was just a whole bunch of trouble that I would not be able to deal with.  I think I also thought no one would buy anything from someone without a long history of feedback. I don't even know what I was thinking.

2 weeks ago I listed a marc jacobs bag. It was a bag I bought when I was angry at my husband for going to Oktoberfest in Germany with his friends. I saw it in Lord and Taylor, all shiny and unaffordable and completely unnecessary. I did not buy it at first, but I let my anger fester and build till the only solution for it was to go and purchase that bag. I have to admit that as cute as it was, it was bought under bad circumstances. It had bad vibes. Anyhoo, I listed it a week and a half ago. It wound up not selling, but it popped my ebay cherry and I was now free to go rummaging through my house like a crackhead looking for things to sell for my next fix.  I remembered the  horribly uncomfortable leopard skin peep toe pumps stored away in their original box on the top shelf of my closet. Someone might want those torture devices. They were cute, albeit painful. I know some people don't mind wearing uncomfortable shoes for the sake of looking adorable, but I am not one of those people. So I got my iPhone and snapped a few pics of them. I highlighted the bottoms, they had not even one scuff mark due to the fact that I might have hobbled maybe 25 feet tops in them. From the car to the restaurant and then from the restaurant to the car. 

Those wound up selling, proving that one person's trash (or painful instruments of torture) is another persons cute pair of pumps. I have to say, I really enjoy the whole process, there are so many elements that I love. I love deciding how much I would like. I like that I don't have to tell this to someones face, like at a garage sale. I like that no one hassles me or laughs at me and says 'are you nuts?' or 'could you do better like that ' or ' I will give you fifty cents for them'. You get to start the bid at any number. I am now conducting my own studies on what is most preferred- having a straight up number, like $20.00, or perhaps using the 'as seen on TV technique of adding $.99 to the end, or coin you go with $.50. Such decisions.Then, you get to decide if you want a reserve.  You pay for that security, but for some things, I have realized it's worth it. Or you could just throw caution to the wind and have no reserve.
Oh and the 'buy it now', do you settle for less? Cut your losses, or just make it a crazy high number and hope for the best? It's like a game of chess. 

Then, you get to obsessively check and see if anyone is watching your item. I just keep the page on my computer and refresh it ten million times a day.

Right now, I have 10 things for sale, one of them is the mangry marc jacobs bag. The rest are vera bradleys. Which my sister refers to as my old lady bags. I am not sure what I saw in them, but at one point I must have loved them hard because of I have so many of them. They were my reward that I unearthed when I cleaned out my closet last Sunday.

Then, if you have the app, you get a little sound letting you know that someone has entered the arena, and placed a bid. The best part is waiting till the last hour of the auction. That is when it's a real nail biter.

The whole thing just kind of makes me hand flap in anticipation. I am mad at myself for not discovering this sooner.