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 Andy who had an interesting adventure with a James Brown singing doll he received at a Christmas gift exchange. The lesson: when you can't give something away, try selling it online! It just might make you "feel good"!
I was the "lucky" person who ended up with a talking, singing James Brown doll at a Chinese gift exchange at a Christmas party a few years back. For those that don't know what that is, the rules are something like this:
Everyone brings a wrapped gift of a nominal value, perhaps $10.00
Count how many people are there; if there are 18 people, number 18 slips of paper 1-18 and place them in a bag.
Have someone bring the bag of numbered slips of paper around to each person and have them draw one number from the bag.
To start the exchange, have the person who drew #1 pick a gift and unwrap it. #2 can either take #1's gift, or pick a wrapped gift to unwrap. The exchange continues consecutively, each person being able to take a gift from any previous exchangers, or a new wrapped gift until all have gifts.
If your gift gets taken, you can then take a new wrapped gift, or take someone else's, but not the one that was taken away from you. The exchange continues in this manner until everyone has a gift. Because #1 didn't have the opportunity to take a gift from another person, they have the choice to exchange their gift with anyone in the room after everyone has gifts.
Any one gift can only be "taken" 3 times. For example, there was a mini Mag-Lite flashlight gift that all the guys wanted. They decided to let the second (an elderly gentleman) keep it, but if it had been taken away from him (3rd time), that person would have been able to keep it.
Well, James Brown was a talented person, but he made one ugly doll face! I tried to "re-gift" it as a Christmas present to my son's girl friend's 5-year-old son. I wasn't there, but I guess the poor kid started crying and told them that he was afraid of the doll!!!
Needless to say, I took it back. And then it sat in the closet, in the basement, almost forgotten.
Lo and behold, James Brown passed away. Fuss was made on CNN on how James Brown memorabilia was being sought out and bought all over the U.S.
A BRILLIANT idea came to mind, why don't I try selling the doll on E-Bay. I mean, if there ever was going to be a demand for a talking, singing James Brown doll in its original box, it had to be now.
Well, I have bought probably over $25,000 worth of goods on EBay (don't get excited, a few items were in the many $1,000's of dollars and industrial in type), but I had no idea what would happen on the other side of the fence.
The listing went up, and I decided to make it a short one, only 5 days. The action started immediately. I had over 40 bids, and ended up selling it to a fellow from Atlanta who beat the second highest bidder out by only $1.00. How much did it go for? 103.50!!! And I couldn't even give it away to a child the previous Christmas!
I thought you might enjoy the story.
Andy von Busse
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
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