eBay auctions help to downsize with ease

A given: "I have too much stuff and I have to start getting rid of it." If you are like 99% of the adult population (over 18) you have probably dreamed of living in a dump of your own making. Until you start downsizing, this dream will haunt you, so Start Now!

Forget that message about throwing out clothes you haven't worn in a year. Wonderful bags are available. You stuff them, then hook them up to the vacuum cleaner and suck away. Suddenly, that monster Snuggie is the size of a brick. Put that aside for now and get to the real stuff; things that might bring you some very handy money.

Assuming you have some silver, china, tools, cameras, or other potentially valuable items, eBay is an easy outlet to understand and manage, and here is how to start.

Make up a name for yourself. This will be your ID for auctions, and later on, if you decide to open an eBay store, you can use it for that. Have the name give a clue to what you are selling. For instance, one of our accounts auctioned marine items, hardware and electronics under the ID "Marinabilia" until we ran out of things.

An amusing aside: We auctioned a used hand-held Loran unit. The box was broken and we didn't know if the unit would work and it really didn't matter since Loran was phased out as a navigation tool. But we put it on, making sure our description was truthful and accurate (Very Important). It sold for a decent price.

Then the fun began. I received an e-mail from a man down south asking if I could contact the buyer to see if he would be willing to sell it to him. Eh? It's broken. Well, I may have the details a bit hazy, but it seems the interested party needed it because he had borrowed a neighbor's identical Loran to go fishing at a very early hour - before he'd had his coffee. Out the driveway, half way down the block, he realized he'd left it on the trunk of the car. He turned back, and there it was in the road, run over! Since he hadn't borrowed the box, and that was all that was broken on our set, he was desperate for it.

Now it turns out the original buyer only wanted it to replace the antenna on his identical model. I put the two in touch and have no idea where it went from there, but they both left great feedback.

Feedback - that is why eBay is so successful. Go into eBay and as the yellow pages ads used to say, "Let your fingers do the walking." Wander around. It won't cost you anything and you can have some fun. Look at sellers' Profiles. Look at their feedback. See what's selling and what the average prices are.

Remember: you are casing eBay to learn about selling. DO NOT BID...that's counterproductive in your case. Very tempting, but that's how you accumulated this pile of stuff in the first place, right?

One other tip: be painfully honest. My first sale, in the late '90s, was a used Mac PowerBook...original model, no ports, no nuttin'. I told it like it was, but did add that it had a "genuine fake leather carrying case." Well, I sweated out that feedback, not wanting to start out with black marks. A week later, trembling, I looked and was thrilled to see, "Great item. In excellent shape for its age." Yes, a collector had bought it. You see, one man's "stuff" is another man's great find.

To start on this enlightening (more ways than one) endeavor, do your homework. Familiarize yourself with eBay. Start searching for items similar to yours. Compare prices and condition of the articles. Read the forums and track what's selling. Write it all down.

Follow my posts as I lead you from the fateful decision to dump to successful selling on eBay. I became a Trading Partner after all my stuff was gone - but took to the sea and retired. I miss eBay; it's a family.