My Great eBay Career

I love eBay, and over the the last several years, I have sold everything imaginable from my eBay auction site.

I'm afraid I started out with a horrible mish-mash of items and no knowledge at all of what to charge or how to create an auction. Hopefully, I have learned a little bit since then.

My first auction was for 3 stamps I thought might be quite valuable. It turned out that they weren't valuable at all, and the man who purchased them was quick to tell me so --- in a polite way, of course. I refunded his money cheerfully, (well, maybe not cheerfully, but without complaining), and chalked it up as a learning experience.

After that, I went on to selling old sheet music, some World War II miniature posters, tea cups and saucers, and a liquid mineral supplement.

Once, I even offered my services as a researcher; one hour of research time for $5. My only bidder, a man from New York, asked me to locate the grave of one of his uncles who had been killed in World War I. After spending 3 hours searching, I e-mailed him for more information, and found that the uncle had fought in the German Army. No wonder I couldn't find his name listed under the American dead.

I joined a discussion group comprised of German veterans and their descendants. One member told me who I should contact, and I was able to locate the burial site a short time later. My client was very grateful and assured me that it was the best $5 he had ever spent, and that he and his son were planning a trip to visit the grave that very summer. It definitely was not the easiest $5 I had ever earned. Thus ended my career as a researcher.

Sometimes, I would read about the success someone was having on eBay, and I would decide that, I too, would be successful and would rush to list another dozen auctions. Some items were sold, but, I will admit, more were not.

There was a year or two, when my auctions were wildly successful. I'll tell you more about that in my next entry. Right now, I need to go and check out my most recent listing, a cute little Log Cabin Syrup can. You know the kind - the ones that look like a tiny little cabin in the woods.

I put it up with a starting price of 99 cents following the theory that a lower starting price will attract more bidders, and thus the chance of a higher sale price in the end. More about my eBay life coming soon.

And, just in case you have nothing better to do, you can see my fabulous Log Cabin Syrup Tin auction at
My Auction Site