Day 138 Packaging up your eBay sales

Due to our  success on eBay recently you may have noticed that several of my blogs mention a tip or two about selling your clutter this way. I had an interesting question from Carmen which raised a subject I thought was worth  mentioning.

Carmen asked:- “Do you have any advice on shipping? The part I stress the most about is being able to find packaging (e.g. boxes) for the stuff I want to sell on eBay. Consequently, I haven’t sold much.”

What I say to this is       RECYCLE     RECYCLE     RECYCLE

Buy the time you have sold the item on eBay you have already paid insertion fees and possibly PayPal fees so you don’t want to have to part with any more of your hard earned profit on having to buy packaging.

I work in retail, selling furniture and decor accessories so I have access to an endless supple of boxes and packaging supplies that would otherwise end up in the recycling. So I would suggest go to a retail outlet near where you live and just ask if they would save you some boxes in various sizes. if you live in America and there is a Joanns craft store near you they are a perfect target as they get one shipment a week from the main warehouse find out what day that shipment comes in and you will have hundreds of boxes to choose from every week. I alter boxes to fit my needs and use old gift wrap (in side out) to wrap them in.

We also save boxes from items we buy if we think they will come in handy for this purpose although I wouldn’t encourage doing this too much as that will just make more clutter around your house. Where feasible we flatten the boxes so they take up minimal room.

If all else fails you might just have to visit the post office or a packaging store to find a box to suit your needs.

ITEM 138 OF 365 LESS THINGS

This ski mask made $56.00 on eBay

Ski Goggles 4

May 18, 2010 · Filed under 365 Less Things

5 Comments

  1. willow Said,

    May 18, 2010 @ 12:19 pm

    I save a few flattened (recycled) boxes for mailing items. Storing them up a bed takes up no space.

  2. Colleen Said,

    May 18, 2010 @ 2:16 pm

    Hi Willow,
    under the bed sounds like a good out of the way place to store flattened boxes. I just hate to admit how much stuff is already lurking under my beds. My boxes are in a neat pile against the wall of the garage and there is also a box of packing peanuts on top of a closet in the garage.

  3. willow Said,

    May 19, 2010 @ 2:19 am

    Since I have no garage I have to be creative. The flat boxes share the space with our inflatable camping sleeping pads which must be stored opened and flat. And we have black widow spiders all over Southern California and I’d rather not pick up a box and find one of those little red hour glass decorated things near my fingers!

  4. Colleen Said,

    May 19, 2010 @ 7:48 am

    Willow, I know where you are coming from we have your Black Widow’s sister here the Red Back spider. Needless to day I never leave my shoes out in the garage or outside the front door. Most things that are stored in the garage are in sealed plastic boxes. The upside is that if I lived 200km further south I would have the Sydney Funnel Web spider to worry about and it makes the Black Widow seem harmless.

  5. Back on the subject of ebay Said,

    February 23, 2012 @ 2:00 am

    […] I can pick one up for free at the big hardware store nearby. See my earlier post on ebay packaging here & here This helps me to be able to calculate the shipping accurately before […]