First of all, the cause of diminishing eBay sales is that usps shipping costs have skyrocketed. The exception is cost for media mail, which is restricted as per the category. Of the last 6 or 7 items, I've listed, and sold, about half have not paid when the buyers realized the cost of shipping; I'm sympathetic if need be. After all, why pay multiple times the price of an item just to have it shipped. And almost all of the items are listed for $5 or less, just trying to find homes for items other than the dreaded dumpster.
A few years ago, before the steep usps increase, I had listed Valentine boxes, the frilly kind, which were in demand. They sold but a few others, cardboard Russell Stover boxes, had not. But the listing stayed on, perpetually relisting, pretty much forgotten about.
The listing was brought to mind last week when a bid was placed, on 2 boxes with long-ago asking price of $2.00. And this buyer paid: the $2 plus $16 shipping for Priority Mail. Yegads, I thought who would pay that price for 2 empty boxes, and in July, no less. But I sent it, along with a $4.00 refund, and I included an extra smaller box which didn't affect the shipping weight category. Done---I hoped.
Today I received an email from the buyer. Again YeGads a problem , I suspected the buyer had not realized the boxes were just plain heart-shaped boxes, albeit containing the inner candy trays .I opened the email with trepidation: it was a lovely thank you in appreciation for both the refund and the extra box. Turns out the buyer uses a rock tumbler to polish rocks which she places in the candy boxes and then sells as art.
She ended the thank you email with a blessing for me. Added to the blessing from columnist John Gray, I should be doing okay for a while.
(I just hope there are no broken teeth from the Rock Candy.
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