I shouldn't be doing eBay right now, I should be canning tomatoes. Yesterday evening I picked tomato after tomato from my husband's wonderful garden. We were going to can them last night, but too many things sold from my eBay store so I was busy readying packages instead. And this evening, nothing is selling, so I can't use that as an excuse not to can the tomatoes. Sixty tomato plants look so innocent as seedlings in the front window, but a different story altogether in early September. Maybe I need to check if homegrown tomatoes are eBayable--someone else already has a zucchini on there, and we can suggest to eBay a new Farmer's Market category. What do you think?

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm. New items added almost daily--maybe you'll even find some tomatoes!

I have quite a reputation among friends and family of being a tightwad. Sometimes I experience gentle ribbing for it, but I've found that having been a tightwad for years, the poor state of the economy hasn't touched my family in any significant way. But lots of people are struggling. Ebay is a great stop-gap measure for someone facing unemployment (I quit my job and actually make more selling on eBay than I ever made before--but I was a musician, so that's not necessarily saying a whole lot), but it can be more, too. Can being a tightwad and selling on eBay allow you to be a total rat race dropout? Perhaps it can. How I went about it: 1. I Read The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn and How To Survive Without a Salary by Charles Long (both are entertaining reads, actually, and are available on eBay).  2. My family started socking away money, and can live on not a whole lot. 2. I started selling stuff on eBay until I got good at it. 3. I got over the need for status, limited though it was, conferred on me for being a professional musician. 4. I quit the orchestra and sold the bassoon, and now eBay is my family's largest source of income.  Going around and looking for stuff, then selling it on eBay is really a pretty fun thing to do, and I can do it with my child, and do most of it from home. A real job is over-rated, but no one says you have to stay with it until retirement age. You can come up with a way to make gobs of money in investments, receive an impressive inheritance or the like, or simply make the very best of limited resources. While some people thing of being a tightwad as constraining, I think of it as freeing. When you don't need a lot to live on, it really allows the opportunity to explore options beyond going to work every day at a "normal" job. I'm very glad I found a way to make it work.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

I frequent second hand stores to see what they have that I might list on eBay. Yesterday I got to talking to Steve, the manager at New 2 You, one of my frequent stops in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He knows I sell on eBay, and looked quizzically at one of my purchases and asked, "There's a market for those? I would throw it away!" I explained how many of the items I would love to find they probably throw away, that lots of things that look valueless to someone in a back room are just the thing another person might be itching to buy on eBay. "I bet I'd have as much success in your Dumpster as I'd have in your store," I told him. I then received an invitation that I couldn't pass up. "Go out back and see what you can find," he said. "I always hate to see so much stuff thrown away." As it turns out, I did indeed have as much success in the Dumpster as in the store. I found vintage Fisher Price Little People parts, vintage Playmobil parts, a primitive basket, a partial croquet set, and other miscellaneous odds and ends (I like to sell replacement parts, so this stuff was right up my alley). And that was just one look on one visit. I love to save stuff from the dump that never should have been going there in the first place. The reason some things sell so well is because almost everyone just throws them away, so they're hard to find. Never underestimate the humble Dumpster or trash pile as an absolute treasure trove of eBayables. When I sell something that was bound for the landfill, I get a far greater deal of satisfaction than if I sell something that I, for instance, found on the Target clearance rack. If I sell something from the clearance rack, I've only made money. If I sell something that was thrown away, I've kept it from the landfill, got it into the hands of someone who couldn't find it otherwise, and I've made money, too--a trio of positives. That's why "Back Door Shopping" is my favorite kind of shopping.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

I like reused or scavenged packing materials in order to keep shipping costs low for my eBay customers. When my parents, who live on a busy street, kindly agreed to allow me to place a sign in their yard reading, "Packing Peanuts Wanted," I simply slipped a couple of stapled-together pieces of poster board over one of my mom's real estate signs, her phone number showing a little underneath my sign cover. Shortly thereafter, her phone started ringing: "I'm interested in your job packing peanuts." Then, "I'm calling about the job." A little while later, "I really need a job. Are you still hiring packing peanuts?" My mom patiently explained what a packing peanut is: a little piece of Styrofoam used for cushioning in boxes. Several crestfallen job seekers later, someone understood what I was really looking for, and a few trash bags full of packing peanuts showed up on the front porch. More bags of packing peanuts appear whenever the sign goes back up. I've never had to buy a single packing peanut. But I've thought with all the packages I need to prepare, maybe I should put up a "Help Wanted: Packing Peanuts" sign. I know I'd find plenty of takers.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

A few days ago an eBayer sent me a message via the "Ask Seller a Question" link criticizing my BIN price on a microwave: "I wish you well. there are several of the same item on e-bay offered from $25. item is used/no warrentee. item is damaged. new same size microwaves can be bought for $40. lots of luck." The person made the comment, of course, without all of the knowledge or experience that I had with the particular item in question. The microwave ended up selling for $99, and the person attributed it to luck when I sent back a friendly email informing him of the sale. I sold another one since then, and yet another one. He made himself look pretty foolish. But then I got to thinking how, when we question God--"If you really exist, why is there so much evil in the world," "Can the Bible really be God's word," and other such questions--that perhaps we are doing the exact same thing. Not everything will make sense to us, but I suppose it doesn't have to. We aren't operating with the superior knowledge. I knew what I was doing with the microwave. And I think God knows what he's doing, too.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

I have a friend, Kathleen, who hates to throw things away (so do I), and so we've formed a bit of a partnership. Sometimes I come home and see on my back porch a box of odds and ends that would look like junk to the average person, and I think, "Kathleen must've stopped by." Last time she came, she dropped off sundry items from her dad's estate--these were things that St. Vincent DePaul rejected: like a 1950's Boy Scout application, a dilapidated wicker rocker, vintage greeting cards, a worn out baby name booklet from the 1940's. I love to get stuff from Kathleen. Every time she gives me a box of junk, there's at least something that does really well on eBay, and I never know what it will be. These are the types of things no one else lists, so a completed item search doesn't usually do a lot of good. Several of the things she gave me end tomorrow. We'll see if I owe her lunch. The more hopeless an item seems, the more I like to see if it will find a buyer--kind of like rooting for the underdog. And even if it only sells for $.99, there's a certain satisfaction with matching a poor little St. Vincent DePaul reject with a new owner. We're down to the final 16 hours. Won't it be fun?

As a post script, I sold most of the items from Kathleen that I listed. The lot of vintage greeting cards far exceeded my expectations, and the vintage Boy Scout application I had such high hopes for flopped (but it did sell at least, just not for very much--to a Boy Scout troop).

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

Most high school kids flip burgers, babysit, or deliver newspapers to make money. When I was in high school, I used to buy and resell band instruments for a "living". With eBay, used instrument prices have plummeted, since eBay has made it so easy to list or find a used instrument. I have a nice flute listed now BIN for $99, which would have sold easily for $200 back in the early '90s. It amazes me that anyone actually rents an instrument these days when eBay is so full of bargains. I've even linked a YouTube video of the flute to my listing to get it sold--but will there be any takers? Ebay sure has thrown a wrench in many resale markets, and one of them is definitely musical instruments.

As a post script, I sold this flute through the Craigslist posting, and ended up having to cancel the eBay auction, which I suppose was better, because I didn't have to pack the thing or pay the FVF.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

Wanting to open an eBay store, I and my mom were brainstorming for a name. I want to use the eBay store as a clearance center for unsold items. My husband is always getting on my case about turning merchandise. He's right, of course, but his idea of turning merchandise is to call 1-800-Got-Junk and be done with it, the moment an auction or BIN ends without a buyer. I decided I'd like a way of getting rid of things that wouldn't eat me alive in listing fees for hard-to-place items. So we were thinking "The Dumpster's Next" would be an apt name, but that would make people think it was all just junk, which it isn't. So we came of with Laura's Last Ditch. If it doesn't sell with the last ditch effort, out it goes. So the idea is price cheap, move it out. We'll see if it works, if it can satisfy me and my husband both. I opened the store today. It'll need lots of tweaking, but it's a start. I haven't sold anything yet. But maybe no one wants an "It's Great Working at McDonald's" vintage Quikoin change purse, bread machine heating element, or any of the other great bargains to be had.

As a post script, the eBay store has been doing well--exceeding my expectations. I plan to continue it beyond the 30-day free trial period. Some things that didn't get bids at $.99 sold for a fair amount more in the eBay store, sometimes almost right away. It really is a great place to list things that are of limited appeal.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

Ebay is such a mystery. Sometimes I put stuff up that I think no one will ever bid on, and it does great (like the junky whisk brooms I just sold for $41), and then there is something like the really cool 1940's machine age desk lamp with great retro Humpty Dumpty decal on it, which I thought someone would be rightfully excited to bid on, and it just sits there at $9.99 with no interest, barely even a watcher, other than my mom, but she watches everything! (This is my practically unprecedented THIRD try with this lamp.) Why, why, why?

As a post script, Humpty Dumpty ended again without a single bidder, but he has found a loving home. My mom decided that he would go better with her decor than the desk lamp she was already using (or maybe she just felt bad for him, seeing him languish for three weeks on eBay). She'll give me her other desk lamp in trade, and maybe I can eBay that instead.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm

Some people have told me, "Laura, you can create money out of thin air!" While not literally true, I do have a keen eye and a keen imagination for unusual sales possibilities. While I like to sell things that are valuable, sometimes I just want to sell something to get rid of it, or because I feel bad throwing it away if someone might use it. Sometimes I simply want the fun of seeing if something unusual will sell. Sometimes these funny little ideas turn out to be valuable, and sometimes I just get them off my hands to a grateful buyer at a low price. The things I've sold (or want to sell when I have enough of them) that you'd never think of: extra check registers,empty Altoids tins, used egg cartons, used silica gel packets, pine cones, vintage lip balm, old whisk brooms, intellectual property (like, if you win this auction, I'll tell you how to pit a cherry without a cherry pitter), General Mills Boxtops for Education and Campbell's labels (which can sell more more than face value, curiously enough), vintage paper napkins, and other unlikely possibilties that escape my memory. I don't let let lack of inventory stop me. If you've ever thought it would be nice to earn some extra money on eBay, but you don't have anything to sell, let me tell you, you DO have something. Just look around with fresh eyes. Not everything sells well all times of the year, and some items won't auction well but will sell readily via Buy It Now. You learn those sorts of things from experience. I really think eBay could be (and actually already is, to a certain extent) a great poverty-prevention tool, since a person can essentially start his own business with practically no overhead (even using the computers at the public library) or costly inventory. I think it would be a great way for a kid to earn money, too. Just collect a bunch of egg cartons from the neighbors, and you're good to go.

I invite you to visit my eBay store, Laura's Last Ditch: http://stores.ebay.com/Lauras-Last-Ditch_W0QQsspagenameZMEQ3aFQ3aSTQQtZkm