Selling It All

eBay is awesome. Let's just start off by saying that. I love eBay. Like many good things that I've discovered, only after everyone else on the planet is bored with them, I wonder how I've gotten on this long without them. I would add things like, Netflix, woodworking, talk radio, and buttered popcorn jelly beans.

eBay apparently was named as a satirical nod to the Ebola virus, of all things. Apparently the programmer wanted it to spread in a similar manner. Well, it did. The first item sold is rumored to have been a broken laser pointer. It was snatched up for almost 15 bucks by someone who, "collected broken laser pointers." This first sale aptly set the precedent for the entire site. A great place to unload your junk on some nutter that you neither understand nor care to. As long as the payment comes through, you can consider them a ,"Good customer, who I would be happy to do business with again! A+ buyer!"

I have found that I can sell almost anything that I can put in a shipping box. Someone, somewhere wants it. No matter how small, worthless or inconsequential, someone will buy it. Those 'someones' all live on eBay. Due to this fact, I've totally lost my grip on reality. I'm a selling fool. What started as a method for me to sell off parts from a tool that I bought has grown into a full fledged sickness. I like money. There, I said it. I like getting rid of things I don't want and getting money in return.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!

It's like a new drug! I'm selling anything that's not nailed down. We were cleaning out the office a few weeks back. I sold, a board game, a set of salt and pepper shakers an old Game Gear I've had since junior high and bizarre piece of aluminum. I've sold both of our old Nintendo game systems, and I'm scouring the garage for more stuff that I can shove into a 5"x11"X2" flat rate box, and label in eBay as, "A great bargain."

It doesn't matter if it's needed, special or essential to my daily operation. If I think I can sell it and no one can physically stop me, it goes on eBay. I'm one small step shy of rummaging through the neighbors trash can, for great 'finds'. So there you have it. As with just about anything that I try, I've dived in head first and completely buried in obsession. Why is it that I can never address anything from a firm moderate stance? Who knows. "How Much Do YOu THINK I CAn GeT For My SpARe VIDeO Card CoLLECTION?!"

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Weird Al aptly described eBay as "that world wide garage sale." I've never actually sold anything on eBay before, I've only been a bidder. I'll have to give selling a try.

And buttered popcorn jelly beans are disgusting. Toasted marshmallow, that's where its at.

Peter Brown said...

Ando-

That "world wide garage sale" line is totally appropriate! It's unreal to me the volume of goods that is transferred on eBay. Selling is fairly simple.

Becca Sports said...

Selling on ebay is fun. The key is pricing the item right. :) Where the $$$ is though is in running ebay (since the get a listing fee and a % of the sale fee). The best gig out there is paypal. They get a % of the sale for just shifting money around. Too bad I was smart enough to come up with that idea! :) Oh well, I'll stick to selling my extra stuff on ebay and make some extra $$.

Peter Brown said...

Becca Sports-

Agreed. I've been fairly lucky with .99 start. You're right the clear winners are eBay and Paypal, but we can still make out pretty well! :)

Tony said...

Meh. Idiotic rules about what adults are allowed to buy and what not, pushing PayPal... It's not all that great. (It could be, if people were free to decide themselves what they want to buy, how they want to pay for it and to what areas of the world they want to sell to. But, alas.)

Peter Brown said...

Tony-

Always good to have a contrasting viewpoint. I've yet to run into "roadblocks' yet, but I doubt it's perfect. So far, so good for me.

Tony said...

kludge, take a look at the banned list sometime. You might be surprised. I know that when I, very much an adult, can not even buy a simple knife from a US seller that I find it downright insulting. And PayPal? There are web sites full of horror stories about PayPal...