Young Bloke and I spent two days sorting the items into piles: eBay, Charity Shop, Rag Recycling. I know, I know, some will say that it should all be Charity Shop, but the point of the new approach is to live better, not just have a better conscience.
Anyway, we sorted it into piles, then into different piles, of similar items, to make listing easier. Then we made a photographic backdrop out of a cream curtain and put a bit of effort into arranging things jauntily, held in place with pins, to show them off to their best advantage. I always find, when I'm browsing eBay as a buyer, that shirts look better buttoned up, tops look better with the sleeves pinned out slightly, jackets look best when you can see all the details.
Here's a tip for sellers: NO-ONE wants to buy something you are modelling yourself with grotty underwear, something that doesn't fit or you have your mishapen toes crammed into with chipped blue nail varnish highlighting your fungal nail infection.
We had a lot of items, so we started everything off at a low price, hoping to shift quantity. We scheduled the listings to start in the evening, so they would end in the evening. Silly o'clock in the early morning may be a productive time for me at my laptop, but it isn't the time to attract a lot of casual browsers out to snipe for a bargain.
We tried to be very clear in our listing details about postage and packing, but many bidders don't seem to read any of it and have maintained a steady stream of questions 'Do you combine postage?' Yes, it says so in the listing. 'Is it from a smoke-free home?' Yes, it says so in the listing and my personal favourite, 'Best price P&P to Russia, ONLY IF DOES NOT SMELL' Didn't bother answering that one as the listing says we no longer post abroad after the last, Lithuanian, experience.
Eventually, it all worked out well. Two localish people are coming to collect things this evening, Most of the parcels have gone off in the post and only a few items are unsold and will be relisted once more before they join the Charity Shop pile. Young Bloke has a couple of hundred pounds book/wine/wig (or whatever they need to buy for law school) money and I have a bit less to put in the shed fund tin. Don't know how that division of spoils happened, as I was the one up late sellotaping labels on bags and then repelling the waves of hatred emanating towards me at the post office. I wanted to turn around and shout at the mutterers, "Hey, it's my business that's keeping this place open so you can come down and take out your dole!" but I didn't.
Easy money?
[caption id="attachment_60" align="alignnone" width="300"]
parcels for eBay[/caption]
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