Do you remember the first item you ever sold online? Let us know by sending an email to ina@auctionbytes.com and we may publish your story. Today we hear from Marta and Carl, sellers who tackled the challenges of selling on eBay in unique ways.

Greetings Ina,
I most certainly do recall the first item I ever sold online, it was a t-shirt I made. I was looking for a way to earn some extra cash as I had recently lost my job, this was around 3 years ago during the Christmas holidays. I was told that you can find free classifieds and other venues to sell your new and used stuff online, so I gave it a go.

I had designed a few organic tees with my own graphic designs on them, I wasn't expecting to make a million dollars, but I was really needing some kind of cash coming in and figured I'd probably sell a couple tees here and there. After finding a few spots online I loaded up my photos and descriptions and waited to see what happened, and wouldn't you know it....they sold!

It took about a week for the first item to sell, but I have to say, when I saw in my inbox that I had money waiting for me I was elated! I remember thinking to myself, I sold an item to someone in California without leaving my apartment, it was a great feeling.

Today I continue to make money online with my company Bangledox, however I am far from making a salary from it. Hopefully one day!
Thank you,
Marta Soto
My stores :
Great American Deals at http://greatamericandeals.ecrater.com/
Bangledox Earth Friendly Tees http://www.bangledox.com

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My first item sold on-line would have been paint through a barter company's intranet back in 1986 or 1987. I operated a paint re-batch plant and sold large quantities of paint to property management companies and businesses.

My first eBay sales were in the fall of 1999. Before PayPal existed feedback was more important on eBay. In order to build feedback I sold the new Sacajawea dollars. I picked up a roll at Walmart and sold about ten of them as a way to earn the vital first feedback comments. They sold for enough to pay my eBay fees and the shipping cost.

After earning say ten positive feedback comments on eBay you could then get a fair price on larger ticket items. Sellers that started out trying to sell big ticket items without earning feedback discovered that items might sell for 15-30% less. Now that PayPal is in wide use a (0) feedback seller can get a better price on their first sales as buyers have credit card and PayPal chargeback protections.
Carl Buchanan
"cashmachine"