EBay

Nearly five years ago I signed up for an eBay account.  Mainly I was interested in picking up vintage cameras and other photographica for my collection.  Then as my positive feedback counter grew with a succession of good deals, I began to seek out other things to bid on — computer software and hardware, mainly — and also to get rid of some items that I no longer needed, but that somebody out there might find useful.

With experience I developed some skill in putting together the right words to attract prospective bidders, made decent digital photos of the items up for auction, and for a period of about a year, managed to clean out from my closet a substantial amount of useful, and often pristine, items to make room for the stuff I had been successful in bidding on.

I became something of an expert packer, using bubble wrap or plastic 'popcorn' to insulate fragile items, made sure that the shipping cartons were securely wrapped with sturdy adhesive tape, and did all I could to ship them out quickly to keep the buyers happy.  For my efforts I garnered a neat blue star in recognition of the couple hundred favorable feedback comments I received from sellers and buyers alike.

The most tiresome part of the process of selling on eBay was having to ship the items to the winning bidders.  It meant I had to take the parcels down to the post office, or in some cases, to the local parcel service.  The lines at our local post office were often long, and if the parcel had to go overseas (or even to Canada) it required a customs declaration form to be completed, and sometimes insurance coverage as well.  A couple of times I miscalculated the weight of the parcel, and ended up paying somewhat more than I had charged the buyer.  For one buyer in Japan, the cost of shipment by express airmail came to equal the declared value of the item itself.

Nevertheless, during the time that I was more or less an active trader, I enjoyed the experience, and relished building a pretty good reputation among the eBay community.

Now, if only I could find an easy way to flog some of my unwanted books, without having to list them one by one on eBay.  Maybe our local library might be willing to take them, you think?