Nothing too exciting to report. I added 2 items to my half.com inventory and adjusted the price of one other. I lowered it by 4 cents to make it the cheapest one listed.

I have 6 active auctions on ebay that I started on Wednesday night. Four have watchers. No bids yet. If all 4 sell, that would get me almost to the $100 goal for the month. I may list some more tomorrow.

A while back, I had blogged about my ebay sales and goal for 2009 and someone suggested I post it as a challenge to encourage others to do the same.

Here's the deal. Set a personal goal for how much you'd like to generate each month in ebay sales. I would also include half.com and craigslist in the challenge. Where ever and how ever you want to sell your stuff is fine. You can even throw in your yard sales if you'd like.

My goal for 2009 is sales of $100/month average for the year. I've already had one half.com sale this week ($18.99). I haven't listed anything on ebay yet. I plan to start tonight.

Let's hear everyone else's goals and keep updating us regularly on your progress.

ETA: I remember on another site, what we used to do was put "Proud member of ..." at the end of our listings. Then we could look up each other's auctions. If you'd like to do that, just add, "Proud member of SavingAdvice.com" to the end of your listings.

My last 2 ebay auctions ended last night. I will not be listing any more items until after the first of the year, so I thought I'd see how I made out. I sold on ebay very little this year - a few weeks in the spring and the past 2 weeks. My sales totaled $507.81 of which $252.94 came since 11/23. Not a lot, but just fine for the limited effort I made.

On half.com, I've had sales of $116.03. I still have items listed and will continue to add items as I get them. Since it is a fixed-price setting, I see no reason to stop listing because of the holidays.

So that's a grand total of $623.84 with the possibility of some more coming in from books sales. Certainly not an earth shattering amount, but all money I didn't have before. Virtually all of the books sold were ones I got for free, so that is pure profit. Numerous ebay auctions were for items I got for free. Others were items I bought for resale but bought so long ago that the money was gone and forgotten, so essentially, that pretty much counts as all profit at this point. Plus, every item sold is one less item taking up space in the house.

My intent is to ebay more seriously in 2009. I'd like to see sales of $100/month or more which I think is a very doable goal.

As of tonight, my ebay sales since I started listing on 11/23 total $214.69. My half.com sales since 10/1 total $96.77. That's a grand total of $311.46! Since my goal was to pick up about $200 by year end, I'm happy with that. Of course, it isn't all profit. I'll sit down and tally up what I actually made once my remaining 6 active auctions end.

I don't think I'm going to start any more auctions until after the first of the year. It is too late to list stuff for Christmas (I don't want to do 1 or 3 day auctions) and I think buyers fade as the holidays get closer.

I'll start up again in January.

I started listing on ebay on 11/23. Those items ended this past Sunday, 11/30. Only 1 of 3 sold, but I wasn't surprised. I grossed $23.06 for that one which I was happy with.

My next 3 auctions ended today. All 3 sold! I grossed $92.53 for those.

I also got my Half.com statement today and I earned $28.21 from book sales this sales period.

That's a total of $143.80. My goal for starting back selling was to earn $200 by the end of the year. I'm pretty close and still have 13 active items with $27.00 in bids already (on 2 items), so there's a good chance I'll hit $200 by the time this batch of items ends.

I know most people do ebay for the money, but honestly, I'm really doing it as part of my decluttering efforts. The money is just a bonus. The real accomplishment is getting the stuff out of the house.

ETA: For those who wonder if they should offer worldwide shipping on ebay, 2 of my 3 items today went to non-US buyers. One is going to Canada and the other to South Africa.

I listed 3 items on ebay on Sunday 11/23. Nothing of any great value. Actually 3 things that got in my way while decluttering in our computer room. So far, one item has a bid and 3 watchers. The others have no bids and no watchers.

I'll be out Wednesday and Thursday nights but maybe Friday I can list a few more items. I'd like to take in a couple hundred dollars between now and the end of the year.

Periodically, I list a book or two on Half.com, usually something I got for free somewhere or something found while cleaning the house that we don't want or need. I've had mixed results, but since there's no cost for listing, I've got nothing to lose. I've sold quite a few over the years.

Lately, I've been getting these short online medical surveys that offer a selection of items to choose from as a reward. I don't want or need any of the items but one choice is a nice medical dictionary, so I've selected that. So far, I've gotten 3 of them. I sold the first one a few weeks back. The 2nd one sold today. I haven't listed the 3rd as I just received it yesterday, but I'll definitely list it now that I see how quickly the first 2 sold. And I think I have at least one more coming to me. I got $8.99 for the first and $7.98 for the second. I always make sure mine is the lowest priced listing for that item.

I also got a promotional set of diabetic cookbooks. I listed 2 of them yesterday and one sold today. I got $7.99 for that one.

So that's $25.00 for 3 books that cost me nothing. Not a bad deal at all. I'll take it.

I've heard a lot of ebay-bashing lately on a couple of different forums due to the fee changes and feedback changes. People are saying they will stop selling on ebay and switch to Craigslist or have a yard sale or just give the stuff away and take a tax deduction.

I've been selling on ebay since 1997 so I've seen lots of changes over the years, but I still think they've got the best deal in town.

I had taken a break from ebay for a while, but started selling again at the end of December. Since then, I've listed 25 items. 22 have sold, so an 88% success rate. Last week, I was 5 for 5 with all items selling.

I listed another 5 items last nite. I had 1 watcher within 15 minutes. By this morning, I had 1 item with a bid and a total of 7 watchers on 4 of 5 items. By this afternoon, I had 3 bids on 2 items and still had 7 watchers. So odds are good that at least 4 items will sell this week.

I don't know of any other venue where I can get that kind of exposure and that type of response to selling my stuff. Yes, fees have gradually increased and it isn't as lucrative as it once was, but it still beats everything else out there.

My latest auctions ended last night and 5 of 5 sold for a total of $39.97. Not too shabby and that's 5 more things not taking up space in our home. That makes 22 sales so far since I started selling again at the end of December. Total sales have been $171.85. And, more importantly, 22 items are gone from the house.

I actually didn't list anything last night. We had been up since 3am to get my daughter to her ski trip and then we were in Atlantic City all day. I was exhausted and was in bed just after 9:00 which left no time for ebay stuff. I'll prepare auctions during the week and list again next Sunday.

I realized it has been a week since my last post. Not a whole lot has happened financially, though earlier tonight I transferred $1,000 from the money market in one of my Vanguard IRA accounts to purchase more shares of the international fund. I've been gradually doing that and had forgotten the past couple of months. I want to build up my international exposure which is much too low currently.

DW and I are going to Atlantic City tomorrow. DD is going on the youth group ski trip - her first time. She'll be snowboarding, not skiing. Hopefully, she'll let the instructor work with her and take instruction well (not always her best attribute). I'm looking forward to the day as I haven't been to the casino since the day after Thanksgiving. We're also meeting friends for lunch while we're there. They spend most weekends down there.

Our portfolio has recovered a bit from it's low point a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping that the market will stabilize, though I'm still taking advantage of buying opportunities so staying flat isn't such a bad thing.

I'm still doing my doctor surveys - just did one tonight for $100 and got a check for $30 on Thursday from one I did last month.

Haven't done my taxes yet. I've pretty much got all the paperwork together. I just need to tally up my ebay sales for the year. Then I'll give my accountant/cousin a call to make an appointment.

Speaking of ebay, I have continued to list 5 items/week except for the week before and week of the Superbowl. Of my current auctions, 3 have bids and 1 other has 4 watchers so will probably sell. Only one looks like it may go unsold as it has no bids or watchers. They all end tomorrow evening.

I guess that's all for now.

It has been one month since I started selling on ebay again. I listed my first items on December 27 when they had a listing fee sale and my most recent auctions ended a short time ago. I figured that was a good time to tally up how I'm doing so far.

Just to review, I've been a collectibles dealer since 1986 and sold actively on ebay from 1997 until a few years ago. I even sold full-time back in 2000 when I was between jobs for a while. Then I got away from it but still have a basement full of stock to sell. So one goal for 2008 was to start selling again, mainly to get rid of stuff and free up space. Any money made will just be a bonus in the process.

So after one month, I have had 17 items sell and 6 items not sell. My sales have totaled $131.88. I haven't totaled up the net profit yet, but as I said, the main thing is that there are now 17 fewer items taking up space around here. I'd say that was a good month.

I normally do my listings on Sunday night, but I'm going to skip listing today because I don't want things ending next Sunday when everyone is tied up watching the Superbowl. I may list tomorrow night instead.

I currently have 6 items listed on ebay. Between them, they have 14 watchers but only 2 bids. Folks, if you are interested in the item, place a darn bid. Don't wait to see what everyone else is going to do. Be bold. Take action. Make the first move.

My latest auctions just ended a short time ago. So far, in my efforts to get back into doing the ebay thing on a regular basis, I have listed 11 items and sold 7, so about a 64% success rate thus far.

As per my plan, I also just listed 5 more items. I also opted to relist one of the items that didn't sell today with a lower starting price. It is a very nice piece, but happens to weigh about 4 pounds so postage is costly. I'm hoping the lower price attracts a buyer.

My first batch of 6 auctions ended today. 4 of 6 items sold for a total of $13.31. It isn't much, but 3 of the 4 items that sold are things that cost me nothing, so that's not so bad. Also, I do add a small handling fee to my shipping charge to help cover materials and auction/Paypal fees.

I did screw up one of the auction listings, though, and didn't discover my error until today. I somehow listed the wrong postage amount, undercharging by a few dollars. I'm going to try and repackage the item more compactly so it won't cost as much to ship. It will still be more than what I charged, but hopefully not too much over.

I have 5 remaining active auctions that end on Sunday. As of right now, 1 has a bid, 1 has 2 watchers and 1 has 3 watchers, so they'll probably sell. I plan to list 5 more items every Sunday.

I also used ebay to purchase some shipping supplies today. A lot of my items get shipped in 6x9 bubble mailer envelopes. I bought 12 at Staples a while ago but I'm going to need more. I checked Staples.com and they charge 13.98 for 25. I searched ebay and was able to get 25 for $10.10. For all you ebayers out there, anytime you need supplies - envelopes, bubble wrap, tape, etc., check ebay first. The prices can't be beat.

As I posted earlier, one goal for 2008 is to start selling on ebay again, something I used to do a lot and have gotten away from.

On 12/27, I took advantage of the 10-cent listing sale and posted 6 items. Then on Sunday, 12/30, the day I traditionally do my ebay listings, I added 5 more items. So I now have 11 auctions going - 6 end on the 3rd and 5 end on the 6th.

As of right now, 3 items have bids. A couple more have watchers. So I'm up and running and on my way. I haven't really set any monetary goal for my sales. I'm really more interested in decluttering and freeing up some space in our basement. The money will be a nice bonus, though.

As per my earlier post, one goal for 2008 is to start selling on ebay again, partly to make a few bucks and partly to declutter the house.

I was going to wait until after the first of the year to start, but then I saw on one of the boards that ebay had a 10-cent listing fee sale today, so I figured I should take advantage of that. I listed 6 items. Normally, the listing fee would be $.40. Today it was $.10. So I saved $1.80 by listing those items today.

Now I just have to sit back and watch and hope they sell. Anything that doesn't sell will either go in the yard sale pile or to Goodwill. No matter what, it will be gone soon.