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 Bobbi, who took the eBay bait; Alexandra, who danced her way into online selling; and Christy, who got hooked when she recycled items destined for the trash bin.

Ina,
The 1st item I sold on ebay was my husbands fishing depth finder. I had taken a local course offered by my community on selling on ebay and told my husband as we were cleaning out his fishing closet that I would like to sell the depth finder he had in there for 2 years. We had since sold the boat he was going to put it on. He said go ahead and I would be lucky if I got $200 for it and could keep anything I made on it. So I cleaned it up and took great photos especially of the connections and placed it on ebay. Well $645 later it was sold to someone on the west of coast of fla who drove over and picked it up. He was shocked, I was excited and hooked ever since. After dabbling the with sales on ebay the last couple of years I have decided to try my hand at full time selling on ebay.
Bobbi Nettles

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Ina,
The first item I ever sold on eBay was a portable dance floor. In early 2004, we were closing our restaurant in Washington, DC, and since I had bought part of my floor off eBay, I figured I'd sell it the same way. A couple in New Jersey bought it and drove down to DC to pick it up. They were buying it for their wedding. They explained that it would only cost them a little more than renting one, but this way they could use it once and then resell it. So this was my first sale and my first feedback.

At the time, it would not occur to me that I would become an eBay seller and have a store. But life makes adjustments. Unable to find enough work after we closed the restaurant, I started working for the now-defunct Door-To-Door Auctions, then went on my own as a Trading Assistant, and eventually decided to concentrate solely on books and opened a store. Have been doing it happily ever since.
Alexandra (2ndchanceauctions)

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Hi Ina,
My first online selling experience came about six years ago when my parents were having their house demolished in order to build a new one. They had left a pile of stuff in the middle of the living room floor and I thought that some free stuff destined for the scrap heap would be as good a place as any to start my eBay career.

I plucked from the pile a chenille bedspread, some tarnished silver spoons, and a weird figurine set involving Santa, cacti decorated with Christmas lights, a campfire and tent.

I am not sure which was the first to actually sell, but the spoons were the least profitable going for only about $2, the weird figurine set of the camping Santa inexplicably went for around $17 (!) and the bedspread went for about $45! Not too bad for rummaging through a garbage heap. Needless to say I was hooked, and have since been selling (and of course buying) online for these past 6 years. You can visit my eBay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/Sewing-Art-Scrapbook-Graphic-Design?refid=store or my new website at: http://destinationcreativity.squarespace.com/

Thanks for the informative newsletter!
Christy
Milwaukee, WI
(eBay ID: kaycee_studios)