Today is a beautiful spring day, the first we've really had this year. I spent a couple of hours attacking the disaster area we call our garage. I managed to make some progress, get rid of some trash, put some stuff in the recycling bin and condense some of what remains. I also made a trip to the Goodwill donation center with 3 boxes containing 3 sets of dishes, 1 box of children's books and 1 old computer monitor. That cleared some space in the garage.

I also located a number of items that I will list on ebay, hopefully starting tomorrow. So my decluttering may yield some cash, too, and help my ebay challenge numbers. We'll see.

I finally got back to ebay this week. I had 4 items ready to list (photographed, descriptions written) but when I did a quick search, I discovered that 2 of the 4 weren't worth listing. They don't sell well or bring enough to be worth trying. I did list the other 2 items. As of right now, both have bids ($9.99 and $7.99) so I will be adding a minimum of $17.98 to my April total. I will be out tonight and tomorrow night so the soonest I can list anything else is Saturday or Sunday. I'll probably try and prep a few things on Saturday and list on Sunday. I probably won't hit the $100 goal this month unless I can dig up some good stuff to sell next week or I get some more half.com sales.

I haven't posted an update recently mainly because I had nothing to say. I haven't listed on ebay for 2 weeks so I've gotten off-track with my challenge.

Fortunately, half.com, which had been dead for a couple of months, picked back up. I've sold 2 books this week. One for $4.25 and one for $29.99.

That gives me $34.24 for April.

I do have a few items ready to be listed on ebay and just haven't done it yet. Perhaps I'll actually get them on this weekend.

A few days ago, I posted that I was only at $65.46 for the month and wasn't sure I'd make my monthly goal of $100. I should have been more optimistic.

My last 5 auctions for the month ended today. Four of five sold, bringing in $66.97.

That brings my total for the month to $132.43. My total year-to-date is now $516.50.

I didn't list anything today, so I haven't started on April yet. And half.com has been dead for me lately. I've got a dozen books listed but haven't sold anything for weeks.

I usually don't update my ebay progress until Wednesday or Thursday since my auctions end Wednesday night, but I'm excited about how this week is going.

Last post, I said I was struggling to make my goal for the month. I listed 5 more items on Wednesday night and a couple were a bit higher priced than my average items.

As of right now, all 5 have watchers (between 1 and 4 watchers per item) and 2 items have bids ($9.99 and $19.99). That brings me to at least $95.44 for the month and I still have 2 more days before they end. If I get just one bid on any of the 3 remaining items, that will put me over $100 for the month (or if the bids I already have get increased by at least $4.56). So it looks like I should hit the goal (or fall short by less than $5) for March.

I'll report the final numbers Wednesday night. Also, I will list more items then, but they'll end in April, so this batch is my last shot for March.

I have 2 auctions end tonight bringing in another $9.49. That brings me up to $65.46 for March so far.

I just listed 5 more items on ebay. I'm struggling a bit this month but hoping I can still pull it out and hit $100. It is starting to look like meeting this challenge is going to be harder than I thought unless I bring in some new merchandise. I'm hoping that when I clean the garage more, I'll dig up some more stuff to sell. Plus I'm hoping that yard sale season helps out.

Just a quick update.

I've got 4 active auctions that end on Wednesday.

2 have bids totaling $8.98.

I went into the basement earlier to pack an item and was struck by the amount of empty space on some of the shelves where I store my inventory. Since starting back on ebay in November, I've sold quite a few items including several that were on the larger side. Also, any items that went unsold are now in the garage waiting for a yard sale. It is really starting to show down there. Perhaps this week, I'll spend a little time reorganizing down there to condense stuff. I'll probably find some good stuff to list in the process. All part of the decluttering process. There is a lot of stuff in the basement (not ebay merchandise) that needs to be stored more neatly, so clearing space in the ebay area will help.

I had 3 auctions end today. One sold for $17.00. That brings my March total to $55.97.

I listed 4 new items today and still had 1 active item for a total of 5 auctions running.

ETA: Just 2 hours after listing, I already have a bid on 1 item, so that's at least another $3.99 that will come in next week, if not more.

I sold two items to someone online (not through ebay) for $18.98, so that brings my March total to $38.97. It is going kind of slow this month compared to the last two months, but I haven't listed as much. I have 4 active ebay auctions. No bids yet, but 2 have watchers.

I'm looking forward to yard sale season which should be starting up shortly around here. I'm hoping to have a yard sale in late April or early May. I also like going to other sales where I often find items to resell for a profit.

I haven't had anything to update for a week because I haven't had anything listed for sale. I just finished listing 3 items and sending a second chance offer on a 4th (something that I had a duplicate of).

I sent the 2nd chance offer at 7:04pm. I got an e-mail at 7:20pm that it has sold. Well, that was certainly easy. So I can add $19.99 to my challenge total. That's the first sale for March and puts me 20% of the way toward my $100/month goal.

I was also contacted the other day by a buyer who was interested in an item that I had previously listed and not sold. He also asked if I had any other similar items. I have 2 others and he may be interested in all 3. I sent him prices and photos and I'm waiting to hear back from him. If he buys all 3, that would be another $26.00, so I'm hoping he follows through.

No half.com sales lately. I'm going to check my inventory tonight and see if any prices need adjusting.

I want to keep on top of the ebay stuff to meet my goal for the year. I just agreed to take a leadership position at my synagogue. That will start July 1 and I'll have less free time after that so I want to sell as much as I can in the first half of the year to be sure and meet the $1,200 goal.

I had 4 auctions end this week, 1 on Sunday and 3 today. None of them sold so I've got nothing to add to my challenge total.

Unless I get a half.com sale in the next 2 days, my total for February will be $175.08. That will bring my year-to-date total to $384.07.

I don't currently have anything active on ebay. I will try and list on Sunday evening as I didn't get to list last night.

I sold another book on Half.com for $7.99. That brings my February Ebay Challenge total to $175.08.

I also added up my 2008 Half.com sales. Total sales were $141.83. Profit after all expenses was $120.19. Add that to the $112.14 profit I made on ebay and my total profit for the year was $232.33. Not bad at all, but this year will be even better.

I'm working on my taxes and finally tallied up my ebay sales for 2008. I didn't do a whole lot last year. I had a burst of selling in the first quarter and then didn't do anything again until late November.

Total Sales: $515.05
Profit after all fees and expenses: $112.14

Not a lot of money but it is nearly a 22% profit margin which isn't too bad. I actually sold a number of items at a loss last year and I'm glad to be rid of them. They were purchased many years ago and have been taking up space ever since. As I've posted before, getting back on ebay is as much about decluttering as it is about making money for me.

Hopefully, this year's numbers will be a lot larger. My challenge goal is $1,200 in sales and I'm already more than 1/4 of the way there.

Even though I don't have much of anything to report, I wanted to make a post just to remind everyone of the Ebay Challenge.

I typically list on Wednesday nights. Last week, I was out on Wednesday night so I didn't list anything.

As I posted the other day, I did buy something over the weekend to resell and listed one item on Sunday (from my hotel room in Maryland). So far, no bids.

Tonight got screwed up, too, so I didn't list anything this week. I will try to get something on in the next few days.

It has been quite a while since I bought items specifically to resell. Since I'm back doing ebay regularly, I've started looking out for stuff that can be resold.

We're on vacation in Maryland this weekend and went to a local outlet mall tonight. In one store, I saw an item that I know is fairly popular. Original price was $24.50. It was on sale for $5.99. Then a store employee pointed out to me that all items with red tags were an additional 40% off. That made this item just $3.59, about 86% off original price. That made it an offer I couldn't pass up. They had 3 remaining so I bought all 3.

When we got back to the hotel, I looked the item up on ebay. One auction for this item ended today for over $26.00, and a few others have sold recently for over $20 each, so it looks like I made a good buy. I spent $11.43 for all 3 of them. If I can sell them for $20 each I'll make a nice profit, even after all fees are accounted for.

I didn't get to list one tonight. I do have my camera with me so I may list one tomorrow. I'll report my results when I do auction one.

I sold 2 more items on ebay tonight for a total of $30.48 bringing my February total to $167.09.

I normally list on Wednesday nights but I was out tonight so nothing listed. I might get to put a few things on tomorrow night but probably not and we're going away for the holiday weekend, so it looks like this will be an off week for ebay. I still have stuff on half.com, though, so sales are always possible.

I sold 2 copies of a book on Half.com yesterday for $7.49 each, so that adds another $14.98 to my February sales total which stands at $136.61.

No action yet on this week's ebay auctions but I'm not expecting much this time around. I put some items on that probably won't spark much interest. I'll be happy if one or two sell.

My first ebay auctions of February ended tonight. WOW! 4 of my 5 auctions sold, which is fine, but 3 of those 4 got into major bidding wars between multiple bidders.

One item sold for $3.99 but the other 3 sold for $41.00, $31.20 and $45.44. That makes my February total so far $121.63. I surpassed my goal in just one week!

I listed 5 more items tonight but I don't expect anywhere near that much interest (or money) from this group of items.

I thought I was done for January a I didn't have any more ebay auctions ending this month. Then I checked my e-mail this morning and discovered that I had sold another book on half.com for $7.99. That brings me to $208.99 for the month.

I have 5 active auctions that end on 2/4. Right now, 2 have bids totaling $22.49, so I'll make at least that much next week. A 3rd item has 11 watchers but no bids yet. It is certainly getting a lot of attention, though. I would think at least one of those watchers will bid, so that should bring at least $4.99, my starting bid.

ETA: I got a bid on that item during the night, so that's another $4.99 at least.

My last 5 ebay auctions of the month ended tonight. All 5 sold and 2 really took off from my starting bids. The 5 items sold for a total of $70.06!

That brings my January total to exactly $201.00. That means I've already met my sales goal for both January and February. If this keeps up, I may need to raise my goal for the year.

I just finished listing 5 more items.

I just checked My Ebay. I forgot I had 2 items ending today. One sold. One didn't. The one that sold went for $19.99 to a buyer in France. It was actually an item I bought a few months ago at a yard sale to resell. I paid $5.00.

That brings my January total to $130.94 so I'm well past my January goal and have a good running start on February. I have 5 auctions ending tomorrow. 3 already have bids and all 5 have multiple watchers.

I shipped the one item to Argentina today. Postage was actually $2.75 less than I had charged so I'm going to give back a partial refund. I don't like to rip people off on the postage.

I still have 7 active auctions. 2 have bids. 4 of the other 5 have watchers. 2 end on 1/26. 5 end on 1/27.

Still no more half.com sales.

I need to order a roll of bubble wrap as mine is just about done. I'm debating about ordering more shipping labels. I like the convenience and clean look of labels but I know it is cheaper to print on paper and cover it with tape. I've found the labels on ebay for $13/100 instead of $23 at Staples, plus I learned how to only use half a sheet at a time instead of a whole sheet, so $13 would get me labels for 200 shipments. That's less than 7 cents per package. I think I'll probably stick with labels.

First, the good news. The buyer from Argentina who hadn't paid me yet finally paid yesterday, so I'll ship that tomorrow morning. It was a $26.00 sale so I'm glad it didn't fall through.

As of this morning, I have 7 active auctions. 2 have bids. 3 others have watchers (which I know means nothing). Also, I got a question this morning on one item asking how much it would be to ship it to Singapore, so I need to figure that out tonight and reply.

No action lately on Half.com. I did get an e-mail a couple of days ago that my most recent deposit for $77.34 was on it's way to my account.

I listed 2 items Tuesday night and 5 more last night, so I've got 7 active auctions. Surprisingly, 2 of the 7 items I listed last night at about 7pm had bids on them by 9pm. That's pretty unusual but I'm certainly not complaining.

I also added one more book to Half.com (actually 2, since I listed 2 copies of the same book).

I still have not heard from the person who won my auction last week. I gave them until today to contact me. If I don't hear from them, I will report it to ebay and send a second chance offer to the runner up bidder.

I listed 2 items on ebay last night and plan to add a few more tonight. I listed 4 books on Half.com this morning. Three are books I've sold before. One is a medical text that may or may not sell, but it didn't cost me anything.

I might have to revise my January total. One buyer has not paid for her item yet. I've sent her an invoice, a reminder e-mail and yesterday I sent a final notice giving her until tomorrow to contact me. If she doesn't, I will offer the item to the 2nd place bidder. Hopefully, that person will still want the item.

I'm glad to read that a few of you have been inspired to take up the Ebay challenge. Keep the updates coming.

Well that didn't take long. Last nite, I posted that my auctions this week were kind of disappointing. Today, I check my e-mail and find 2 books sold on half.com. The total for those is $15.43, bringing my total for January to $110.95. So that meets my $100/month goal for January.

My first batch of auctions for 2009 are over. I'm a bit disappointed as only 2 of 6 sold even though 5 of 6 had watchers. Such is life.

Add $35.99 to my total. That puts me at $95.52 for the month, a few dollars short of my $100 goal.

I usually list on Wednesday nights but I ended up having to go out tonight with my daughter (I'm not home now) so I'll try and list tomorrow night instead. I do still have one active auction. I also have a few books that I may list on half.com (older stuff, not new books like I've been listing).

I've got half a month to make $5.00. I think I can handle that.

As of tonight:

7 active auctions
6 items have a total of 12 watchers
1 item has a bid

6 items end within 24 hours so I will have an update with new sales totals tomorrow night.

I listed one more item on ebay last night, so that makes 7 active auctions. No bids yet, but I've got a total of 10 watchers on 5 items. The first 6 items end on Wednesay night.

I just sold an item on half.com for $18.59, so that brings my January total to $59.53.

No sales yet.

No bids yet, but I've gone from 5 watchers on 4 items to 8 watchers on the same 4 items. Two items have 3 watchers each so pretty good chance that those 2 will sell. They end on Wednesday.

I just listed one more ebay item.