How I did it: I organized the things we wanted to sell. My husband photographed them, uploaded the pictures, and created the listings. One or both of us would write the descriptions and answer questions. I packaged things and took them to the post office. After years of procrastinating about it, we finally got around to listing things and over the course of maybe 2 years, sold all but one thing, which we ended up donating. Sometimes a while would go by during which we weren't listing anything, but the pleasure of seeing the pile of boxes shrink and the PayPal account grow helped us keep at it.

Lessons & tips: Search ebay for completed sales to see what the going rate is for the items you're selling. Being realistic about what you're going to get for an item makes it more likely to sell. We rarely had to relist and were usually pleased by the final price.

Resources: Having a partner in the process helped, because we're not a mail order business for a reason: we find it a big pain in the neck! So sharing the responsibilities made it less of a burden.
Having saved lots of boxes and packing materials meant I pretty much always had what I needed on hand to get things ready for shipping.

Dec 07, 2009, 01:02PM PST | 0 comments | 8 cheers