Although I've had a plan to sell some things on Ebay for a while they simply sat in my office longer than I had hoped. Call it a learning curve or something like that because it seemed so much easier to buy and have things show up at my door. In fact, now I think I've hooked my six year old Eli on Ebay.
So finally yesterday afternoon I listed items in nine auctions. There are literally hundreds of dollars of Xerox Phaser 860 solid ink which some people may be getting for bargain prices a small Plantronic phone which sold overnight - my first sale yahoo! So I'm hoping that it's worth my time and effort, which is yet to be determined, and I know that it's worth saving it from the landfill.
Eli also wanted in on my first Ebay adventure. We, or should I say I listed some of his no longer loved, but still in great condition Diego Rescue Center and Jeep, Dora and Littlest Pet Shops. I'm glad to see that his obsession with these has passed.
He's hoping to hit it big so that he can get some more Pokemon or Tech Decks. His mind is racing and I can see that he has no intention of saving any of the potential cash.
I see it as a win / win. My little entrepreneur has already sold some of his Littlest Pet Shops to friends and has no problems asking any girl that comes in if she wants to buy them, of course asking after they've played with them. I still think he'll be a bit sad once all of this is gone as he also uses the houses, rescue center, etc for his Pokemon and animals, and I see it as a way to clean out his room and have him feel good about it. And I want to take advantage of his current desire to sell.
Up until now I simply gave everything away, except for the Thomas Table and tracks which our neighbor purchased for their child. In fact I loaded my car with toys, books and clothes the end of summer. A friends kids thought it was just like Christmas which I loved. Value Village also prospered. Eli didn't really notice was what missing, and I have to admit I did it while he was at day camp. I simply looked through for things I noticed he no longer played with or used, or was too small. One of those things were lots of puzzles which were for 3 - 4 year olds.
At the time Eli wasn't ready to part with Diego, Dora and Littlest Pet Shops - so I went with the flow. Then he saved up some money and wanted to go to the store to buy Tech Decks, a new obsession (along with Pokemon and Bakugan). I didn't want to go to the store and said hey let's see what is on Ebay. We did.
We bid on about 5 items - and I was desperately hoping we wouldn't get them all because Eli had a total of $14 to spend. Over the next few days the items began dropping off the list as we didn't increase our bids. Each day after school Eli eagerly wanted to see how he was doing.
What I like about this scenario was that it didn't provide immediate gratification - instead he build anticipation. Each day we discussed our plan of action and which item he most wanted.
In the end we won two total items and spent $15 including shipping - so he had to cough up some more change. And it took four plus days for them to arrive which I also liked because he, being six, is all about right now, immediate gratification.
The best part of the experience is that he won the item he most wanted - aka mom's strategy.
Ok so I have one more lot of PetShops to list - and the rest have been claimed by Eli's Auntie for his cousin. I cracked up because she called to make sure I would save enough...ENOUGH? this stuff had taken over his room and every friend that came over said he had more than any one else they knew and he was a boy.
Eli claimed two things: 1. he only picked out boy PetShops - to which I'm not clear how you can tell, and 2. he first picked out PetShops so that he could play and trade with the girls on the block - now that's one smart boy.
Ok, back to the auctions, I mean work.
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