Sitting by the Dock of eBay..

There comes a time in the life of organizing where simply keeping, donating or throwing away just does not fit a particular item. Take, for example, a cute, still boxed hand-embroidered little seer sucker outfit for a 6 month old boy with all the tags. My son is 2. As in 24 months, terrible two's. I can't throw it out, there's certainly no point in keeping it - and frankly, even though its the christian thing, I'm not going to donate it either.. just so it can be flung into a box of mismatched, second-hand, baby gear by the helpful gentleman at the goodwill sorting facility.

I tried sending some baby stuff to a consignment sale at a local church recently . I painstakingly pinned (with tiny safety pins) regulation consignment sale-specific tags (with full description of each item, size, price etc.) on each item and placed them (or pinned in the case of pants and shorts) each item on a certain kind of hanger (plastic for 0-6months, wire for all others), I dropped the stuff off in my pre-allotted 15 minute window and 3 days later re-arranged my schedule again and woke my two year old up early from his nap to pick unsold items up in a pre-allotted 30 minute window ... all to make $50.

No, thanks.

Not again, anyway - now I know. Enter eBay. I will say it is all in the presentation. i.e. "Eddie Bauer Diaper Bag, BEST TRAVEL BAG EVER!!!!" and follow with description of many pockets, including credit card, cell phone and pen holder (gasp) as well as room for a lap top, gently-used (just one long haul trip) blah blah blah.. and presto! The style of diaper bag, previously unsold by others, got into a hectic bidding war just a few days later and I tripped over myself with glee rushing to the post-office to mail it off to a very grateful new mom in Arizona. Success! A much better experience.

So in the last few weeks, I have made almost $500 selling odds and ends (unopened perfume still with gift bag, never worn golf shirts of my husbands, baby blankies, bottles, unopened grill tool set (that I think only cost $19 when I bought it)... all to very happy and satisfied customers. $500 will pay down a credit card that is currently simmering at 27.99%.

The only problem, apart from the many trips to the completely understaffed, over-patronized post-office (which is not too bad when you keep your mind on the money) is that I check "My eBay" almost more often than I hit Send-Receive on my email when waiting for a sign-in verification link. I almost imagine it being akin to an amateur day-trader watching, with ever-increasing chest-tightening excitement, his penny-stock creep up, up and up.... at least on eBay it is not going to creep back down again (although you may have a dud buyer.. rare but there). But, just as a day-trader builds confidence to buy more valuable stock, so I have started looking around for more valuable objets (hmmm.. what about that watch my mothers ex-boyfriend gave me for my 21st?).

Very soon, we will be living in a very minimalist home. We'll have a home (although real-estate used to be the thing to buy or sell on eBay) and we'll still have furniture; I'm not lugging that to the post-office... although... there's always Craigslist...