BUY AND SELL FOR THE CURE

[Lisa Johnson]

BUY AND SELL FOR THE CURE

by Lisa Johnson

Call me a lunatic, but I'm reaching for the moon. If man can walk on the lunar surface, we can raise a million dollars for ME/CFS research- it will bring us closer to solving ME/CFS.

Nine years ago, I fell ill with ME/CFS. I had been like a space ship rocketing through life, when abruptly, I was devastated with this illness. It was like being was struck down by a meteorite- overnight, I went from being an accomplished triathlete to a floppy rag doll. I no longer felt like a streaming rocket; instead I was a stranger to myself, too exhausted to cook, too tired to even sort the mail. I felt pathetic, useless, a burden to my husband as I could no longer work.

Shopping in stores was impossible, so I turned to eBay to purchase necessities. Medical bills mounted, and it occurred to me that I could sell on eBay to help cover some bills. Selling possessions that I no longer needed gave me a sense of accomplishment. It was something I was able do a little at a time.

It was frustrating to discover how under-funded ME/CFS research is, but the sadly, most of us with this illness need to conserve our energy for basic tasks of daily living. Organizing a walkathon, run-athon, or bicycle race for the cure is out of reach. However, we can organize sell-athons via the eBay Giving Works program. With just the click of a button, sellers can donate the proceeds of their sales to the CFIDS Association of America.
Action is an antidote to hopelessness and despair. Buying and selling for the cure is easy. With the tap of a finger, you can buy some fantastic items from my eBay charitable site, including items from the distinguished artist Anna Zapp, who has ME/CFS:
CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE:
www.ebay.com/usr/solvecfids

Now is an ideal time for spring cleaning. Instead of donating your valuables to organizations like Goodwill, sell them on eBay and donate the proceeds to the CFIDS Association. Or, if you wish to support another organizations, sell and donate proceeds to Dr. Lipkin or other research groups via Paypal. If we all pitch in, we can accelerate the pace of discovery.

 

[minkeygirl]

I think in theory this is nice but if I have the energy to sell stuff on eBay, I need that money to pay for the medical care, medication and supplements not covered by my insurance.

 

[Lisa Johnson]

I hear you and sympathize, and I'm sure many others are in the same situation. If I didn't have my husband to help with bills, I'd be in the same boat. This only applies to people who can afford it. eBay gives sellers the option of donating a portion of sales, as low as 10%. I'm thinking if tons of people try this, it will all add up. A few dollars here, a few there.

I don't have lots of energy, but I just do a tiny bit at a time, so it's manageable, and I can do it from home.
Lisa

 

[minkeygirl]

The problem I have found with selling on ebay is not only do you have to list the items but you have to find packaging, print the label when it's sold, get it packaged and then get it mailed.

And if the small amount people do donate goes to every researcher out there, it's only going to be a drop in the bucket IMO.

I guess I'm too jaded in my ripe old age LOL.

 

[Lisa Johnson]

One can get free priority boxes and envelopes at the post office, as many as you need, and they seal themselves. The post office will pick up packages from your doorstep. It takes 1 minute to write out an address. Plus you can get a tax deduction for whatever you sell.

It absolutely kills me when I hear about fundraisers for every other cause under the sun and moon, but fundraising for ME/CFS is sparse at best. If you buy something from me or someone else selling for OUR cure, not only do you give funds for research, you get the great stuff you bought! I know I can't convince you, but I'll die trying to convince others.)
Wish you the best.

 

[minkeygirl]

Priority shipping is too expensive for me and most people. I won't pay for priority shipping when I buy stuff.

And if it's bigger than a small flat rate it's not worth it.

eBay allows you to print your own labels with reasonable shipping rates which is what I do. Then you're back to boxes and getting them to the PO.

I've got boxes of books to ship media. But no way to get to the PO.

 

[Bob]

Hi Lisa,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts for raising funds.
You're not alone on this forum... Some others use ebay to raise funds to donate to research.
It's clearly not everyone's idea of fun (e.g. @minkeygirl ), but it works for some.

A big welcome to the forum, Lisa.

Hope you stay with us.

Best wishes,
Bob

 

[Lisa Johnson]

Hi Lisa,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts for raising funds.
You're not alone on this forum... Some others use ebay to raise funds to donate to research.
It's clearly not everyone's idea of fun (e.g. @minkeygirl ), but it works for some.

A big welcome to the forum, Lisa.

Hope you stay with us.

Best wishes,
Bob

Many thanks, Bob. I think it is fun and exciting, actually. I'd love to hear about others doing the same so I can browse in their stores and support their efforts.
Warm regards!

 

[minkeygirl]

@Bob . I never said there wasn't a rush selling things on eBay, which you may call fun, just that for me and many others it's not as simple as getting free boxes from the PO.

As I said, After being sick for 20 years I'm jaded.

 

[*GG*]

Ok, Debbie Downer, can you also provide a positive with your negatives?

GG

 

[Sasha]

Hi, @Lisa Johnson, and welcome to the forums! This is a great first post. I sell stuff on Ebay fairly often and tell my friends I'll sell their unwanted stuff for charity so they quite often donate things. I just sold a brand-new posh bottle of body lotion that a friend gave me (it was an unwanted gift that someone had given her, and she's moving house so was having a clear-out) and raised £7 ($10) from that alone.

I also sold a couple of blouses that I wouldn't have gone to the trouble of selling on Ebay if I hadn't been going to donate the money to medical research - it is a slight faff laundering and ironing (never usually happens!) clothes, doing photos etc. - and to my surprise, one of them sold for £16 ($24)!

I sold some other stuff too. I'll be donating it to the Lipkin gut microbiome study. Although you can donate direct to a charity through Ebay, you can also do what I do and just sell on Ebay as normal and then donate your money where you want.

I only sell when it's a free-listings weekend and only when I've got the energy. Over the course of the year, I can usually raise £200 ($300) or so doing this - just little bits every few weeks.

I know that not everyone can do this, whether because they're broke or don't have the energy, but many of us do sell on Ebay to raise money for our biomedical charities and many of us could if went at it gradually and steadily and when we had the energy.

I hope that if you haven't thought of selling on Ebay before, you might consider it as an excellent means of fundraising for biomedical research.

 

[peggy-sue]

A very major problem with ebay is the greed of both ebay and paypal knowing no bounds.

This reduces any margin of profit for the seller so drastically that many sellers are now turning to other auction sites, such as etsy, which are a lot easier and much cheaper to use.

ebay are now charging a percentage of the postal charges for themselves too.

So it's a matter of pounds for ebay and paypal, and pennies profit for the seller who has all the work.

And it IS work.
All the photography, cleaning it all up, describing it properly, choosing all the correct categories to list under, then the matter of packaging - which has to be secure and you've got to fiddle with that and sets of scales and measuring tapes to get your parcel into the restricted size and weight limits.

Yes, there are couriers who will collect - but you have to be next to the front door for a day or more waiting for them.

Ebay and paypal and the postal services are the ones laughing all the way to the bank.

Shame - I've got quite literally tons of stuff I need to get rid of. All glass. All very heavy and awkward to parcel safely.
I need to get shot of it before I die - Michael wouldn't have a clue where to start.

 

[Sasha]

So it's a matter of pounds for ebay and paypal, and pennies profit for the seller who has all the work.

Well, I just made quite a few pounds...

Seriously, Ebay and Paypal take a cut but as long as you include a sensible postage fee for the buyer to pay, you're going to get the lion's share by a long shot.

And it IS work.
All the photography, cleaning it all up, describing it properly, choosing all the correct categories to list under, then the matter of packaging - which has to be secure and you've got to fiddle with that and sets of scales and measuring tapes to get your parcel into the restricted size and weight limits.

Yes, there is some work but it needed be loads. If you're selling a branded item, you may be able to find an existing photo of it by googling (do a Google search and hit the 'Images' button) - in which case you can copy it and use it for your sale. Not everything needs cleaning, it's not much work to choose categories, packaging might be fiddly or you might have just the right jiffy bag and it's easy - and it's not all that often that an item is on the borderline between size categories.

Personally I'm happy selling on Ebay and over the years I've made hundreds of pounds.

 

[Bob]

I used to sell some of my old books and CDs/DVDs through Amazon. It didn't make a huge amount money after paying for postage, so I started giving them to charity shops to sell instead. But perhaps I could start doing that again, with a view to donating the funds to ME charities. I used to find it quite fun making a sale, but I do agree with others that a fair amount of work is involved, so it's not for everyone.

 

[peggy-sue]

Perhpas my experience is rather limited - to a very specific and difficult area in secondary market Art Glass.
Much of which is lead crystal rather than glass - and packing has to be the insurance - so I'm talking double boxing - with padding intbetween the boxes, and very large and heavy parcels.

There is no safe way of cutting postal costs.

I do have friends who do manage to make a sort of living doing it - but it has to be a labour of love as well as making the money, or they would not be doing it. First, they have to trawl the countryside looking for auctions and second-hand places looking for stock, they have to *know* what they're buying and what they can sell it for - with all the cuts taken.

Unless you're just selling old stuff you already have and don't need, it's not an easy way to make money for yourself.

@Sasha Are you allowed to use other folks' images - surely copyright causes trouble?
I've sent back things where it wasn't the item photographed that I recieved, when a generic, but much nicer, example was shown.

Perhaps I'm just too much into everything being second hand in the first place - I have no awareness of brands or prices of new goods.
All I know about brands is that I have taken a black marker pen to Michael's black nike jacket ugly great big white tick.
I'm not being seen with sombody advertising them.

 

[Sasha]

Perhpas my experience is rather limited - to a very specific and difficult area in secondary market Art Glass.

I agree that's the most difficult stuff to sell - easily breakable, very heavy, high postage rates, lots of work to photograph well and describe.

I do have friends who do manage to make a sort of living doing it

I think that's a very skilled enterprise - I had a competition with my family once where we all spent a fiver at a car boot sale and tried to make the biggest profit on Ebay. We all either broke even or made a slight loss! We didn't have the expertise to guess the market.

But selling your own unwanted stuff is another matter - it's pure profit.

@Sasha Are you allowed to use other folks' images - surely copyright causes trouble?

Actually I suppose that could be an issue - I suspect it's too minor a thing to be policed but yes, perhaps I shouldn't be suggesting it!

I've sent back things where it wasn't the item photographed that I recieved, when a generic, but much nicer, example was shown.

I only use a generic photo for things that are in perfect nick - otherwise I photograph it myself and provide pix of any flaws.

Perhaps I'm just too much into everything being second hand in the first place - I have no awareness of brands or prices of new goods.

Branded goods sell extremely well on Ebay - not necessarily because people are shallow and want a logo but because people search on trusted brands for all sorts of goods.

The great thing is that you can make loads of money on Ebay for biomedical research for ME by selling unwanted stuff. It's free money, essentially! Yes, there's a little bit of effort involved but most things are fairly easy to deal with.

As Lisa said in her thread title, we're selling to get a cure! Surely that's worth it.

 

[Sasha]

I used to sell some of my old books and CDs/DVDs through Amazon. It didn't make a huge amount money after paying for postage, so I started giving them to charity shops to sell instead. But perhaps I could start doing that again, with a view to donating the funds to ME charities. I used to find it quite fun making a sale, but I do agree with others that a fair amount of work is involved, so it's not for everyone.

There's quite a lot of stuff I'd give to charity shops if I didn't want to sell it to donate to ME research because for some things, the profit margin is quite small and there is always a little effort involved.

However, because the money is going to ME research I'm willing to make the effort and it all adds up (especially when friends start donating items - most people can't be bothered to sell their own things, especially healthy people who are busy with work).

This really is a good way to make money!