Anyone fancy an ebaying for Christmas challenge?

[IsabellaofFrance]

Selling all your old stuff to pay for Christmas?

If you fancy it, pop in and say hello.

I am starting today and have done some listings - am aiming for £300 after fees to pay for the DC's Christmas pressies.

Hooray !

A kids chair from IKEA that I've listed 4 times now has finally sold (sold on first listing but buyer failed to collect for 2 months over the summer so we agreed I'd relist it and since then many watchers each time but no sale)

It's only a few quid but no paypal fees as it'll be local pick-up will mean I keep more of it.

Loving all the extra free listings I've been able to take advantage of recently. Do they dry up in the run up to Christmas as people are more inclined to list stuff regardless to make some ££ for Christmas or can we expect more ? There's hardly been a weekend when there hasn't been a 100 free listings invite in the last month or so.

£116 made in total now, just another £9 and I'll be half way to my target.

I'd love to do this what should I do.

I have upstairs a new cat scratching post (current new kitten prefers my old one and doesn't touch this one!)

Philosophy gift sets

espresso cup gift set

bits and bobs possibly clothing

Hobbs NW3 canvas bags x 2 (BNIP packaging)

unused perfumes almost full

maybe kitchen equipment

Well you lot all seem to be doing well. As usual, I am not. I don't think I have the same quality of items as the rest of you and I certainly can't be bothered with ebay so much these days.

Anyway, having made, and spent £80 on a new winter coat, I have since made only just over £40 (that's in about a month). I have loads of stuff listed, and most of it is fixed price for 30 days so I don't have to spend a lot of time re-listing but still, I wish I could sell more.

To those who asked about books, I do sell quite a few. Esp children's books. Because they are usually thin, you can usually get away with large letter postage. I always sell with free postage and look to make between £1 and £2 per book which isn't much but then we have loads of books in our house. Never any trouble with the condition of the books because I am scrupulously honest. And they are easy to list because usually ebay already has a photo and description you can use.

SuperHighFly - the best way to get started is to search for each of your items on ebay and see what they are selling for already and what they sold for in the past (click on completed listings only once on the search page). That will tell you what sort of value you are looking at, and will also give you ideas of how to list.

3 days to list up to 100 things for free.....

Hope everyone is able to take advantage as not paying listing fees certainly helps when you're selling lots of low value items like I am at the moment.

I'm gutted that I need to spend the time on an urgent domestic project this weekend and probably won't get that much extra listed. Still I've made £144 now

On the plus side however I've now got rid of every single pair of outgrown plimsolls and wellies we had stashed away in the house and only a couple more pairs of kids trainers/shoes to list.

Next, given the time of year, I think it's time to move on to listing all the kids school nativity/pantomime costumes that we still have at the back of a wardrobe.

The chocolate coin maker toy still has no bids I notice, everyone knows how crap they are, courtesy of mumsnet !

Fairisle - I think the 100 free listings is by invite only...I just have the normal 20 per month at the moment (did have 100 free last weekend though!!)

I love that it now includes the fixed price option because I never used to be able to benefit from the promotion but it makes a big difference to me now.

I just sold another buggy this morning and 2 accessories which have been collected. I am so pleased to see the back of them but need to get cracking on the rest of it.

I hope you get to take advantage of the free listing...do you use an app for listing? I find this saves so much time and hassle and means I can list a couple of things when I only have 5 minutes to spare.

I always miss the Halloween/nativity/Christmas jumper windows of opportunity...just not organised enough!!

So my first batch of listings has ended, all started at less than £5 and my grand total thus far is £36 so I am pleased. Though I haven't listed anything else so I need to get a routine going whereby I am regularly listing different things.

Natalie - well done!! When listing my items in auction-style, I try to list 2 or 3 items each evening so that it doesn't get too overwhelming. I find this particularly helpful when it comes to the end of the auction so that I don't have to pack and post a lot of items in one go. However, my post office is on the same street so I appreciate it might not be convenient to pop in daily for others

I'm a bit of a techno numpty and haven't sussed out any listing apps yet.

I usually get a whole load of stuff piled in a corner at home and then spend time photographing it all on my husband's ipad and send the pictures to my e-amail address.

I then use my lunch hour at work to do a dozen or so listings, adding the photos I've e-mailed to myself. I like to be very descriptive especially with used/worn items to try and minimise any "item not as described" possibility.

£36 in one batch is pretty good Natalie. I'm assuming that's after ebay/paypal//postage etc

I've worked out that if I've priced stuff right I get left with about 80% of the total that the buyer pays.

I made mistakes in the early days and despite eBay's prompting I won't list anything for 99p now. I batch stuff up instead so that buyer gets more for their money and postage if it's small stuff I'm selling.

Have cocked up on a postage weight this afternoon however and only made 91p on a job lot of 28 kids books. Consoling myself that I have freed up a lot of space getting rid however and re-used some old packing materials so inadvertently made a little on p&p.

Fairisle - re postage. That's so frustrating. I often go up to the post office with a parcel, only to discover I have underestimated the 'small parcel' dimensions . More often than not, I take the parcel home and send it through my Hermes instead.

You can get a free app for the iPad...it's much quicker and more straightforward

I also take off 20% for fees (usually when setting my prices).

I'd love to do this. Watching and learning from you so far...

Yes, £36 after fees and postage. My plan is to leave all the money in my paypal account (and not spend it!)

I have 2 active listings now which are items that went unsold.

For those stung by paying medium parcel prices try hermes for cheaper alternatives

Natalie - yes, my Hermes much cheaper. Although, rm have increased their small parcel dimensions and weight now so should be much better.

I checked my PayPal balance today. I thought I hadn't bought much lately but there was a lot less in there than I had hoped .

eBay says I have sold £490 worth of stuff in the last 60 (?) days but my pp balance is under £200 . Spending ban from now on

Ah, just had a thought...I offer free postage so a fair amount has come out of Pp to cover postage.

I think I posted here or somewhere else.

I checked some items I had (Philosophy Sugar Plum Fairy gift set) and some hadn't sold. What would I price it for if it went at £8.63?

I've got another top Top Shop NWT but on checking it said it hadn't sold.

so what do I do now? wait for a free listings day.

I DO have an old iPhone and new Blackberry that I know will sell well.

Superflyhigh

A lot of my unsold stuff automatically relists as you used to get 3 relists for free but I've noticed recently that I only get one free relist now.

I leave them in the unsold section and relist when there's a 100 free listing weekend. I think they can only stay in the unsold section for a limited period of time though so do check it out.

I started listing lots of stuff in July and made a fair bit of dosh for holiday spending money. Some items I listed back then have been relisted on a 10 day auction about 8 times and pretty much everything has been sold in the end (although I did reduce some prices and cut p&p to a minimum based on using recycled packaging materials) so don't give up hope.

Hope this helps.

fairisle - great point and I never knew that thanks!

have made £160 now so £90 to go to my target

How's everyone else doing ?

Today I posted a "worn only a couple of times" M & S 36C bra to a buyer with a man's name on the account and in the address details - felt a little odd, maybe it's a wife/partner using their other half's ebay account ?

My surplus bras are selling well at the moment, all on 30 day fixed price listings and one sells every couple of days or so. Just need to photograph some more now I've tested the water and list when 1st November comes with a new batch of free listings.

I had a quiet week last week but everything changed again this last week-end with 6 sales all at good prices and everyone paid by Monday morning which is a surprise,I cleared £64.00 in total so another decent amount to add on,I have decided to carry this on after xmas as No 1 son is getting married in 2016 (seems ages away) in las vegas so if I forget about my pay-pal balance I should ? have a decent amount,just got to stay clear of "withdraw money" button.

Oh this thread is inspiring, can I join in? Got some stuff to eBay if I manage to organise it

chocolate keep a look out for free listings and make good use of them,when you have time do the pic's and leave ready for uploading if you get free listings saves loads of time,best of luck sweetie.
I've had two more decent sales this morning looks like the end of month salaries are being spent now in run up to xmas.

£64 is fantastic glammanana

I've cocked up with some similar items posted to the wrong buyers so any profits this week will be wiped out by sending them prepaid postage labels to post the items on to each other.

Have dropped the price on some bras to try and move them - they are brand new with tags. The feedback has been very good though sooooo hoping my balls-up won't ruin it.

I am a positive vulture pouncing on cardboard packaging and plastic postal bags which can be re-used from work. We only empty the office bins half as much and put out a bin bag less a week since I started doing this amount of ebaying.

I've started a little on-line Christmas shopping already and guess where all the packaging that it comes in will be going, yes, straight back out the door containing various ebay sales.

Have another month's 20 free listings per ebay ID to use now so I'm happy.

Keep up the good work people. Britain (or was it England ?) has once again become a nation of (ebay) shopkeepers - Can't recall who that quote is attributed to but it seems appropriate.

First lot of stuff sold :) I've got £50 in my paypal account now, I was tempted to transfer it to my bank but I think I'll try and leave it in there and pay directly for Christmas pressies from paypal

Didn't get a lot for some things but ho hum, at least it's gone

Must sort out my next lot of stuff, how do you know when you'll get free listings? I don't seem to have any, am I missing something? :)