A Dubious Honor

Today I received an email from eBay announcing I was a Red Star Winner. ( Note here I tried to upload the certificate to show you but the format won't let me upload it as a picture and my computer expertise is somewhat limited. Therefore, try to picture a cheesy looking "certificate" with a big red star on it, certifying that I've reached the goal of 1000 transactions on eBay.)

Now if I were an eBay seller, that would be a real nifty achievement, since it would denote I had successfully sold 1000 items on eBay. I am not an eBay seller. I have never sold anything on eBay and have no plans to do so. Sooooooo, that leaves one other possibility for "1000 transactions", right? You got it. I've purchased over 1000 items on eBay. Now, if I had paid even one dollar per item that would represent a chunk of change. But anyone who knows eBay, knows you don't get too much for one dollar, considering postage and handling, etc.

Sigh. I confess. I'm an eBay shopaholic. It's a little odd, since I really don't much enjoy shopping in "real life". I go when I have to to get groceries or some specific item I need, but I rarely just go browsing (unless, of course, I'm with friends in LA, browsing heaven!)

But sitting at the computer, especially late at night in the dark, the bright screen beckons with all sorts of tempting items. My daughter turned me on to eBay about six years ago, and now she says she created a monster! That's not to say I buy a lot of things I don't need or use--probably no moreso than the average "regular store" shopper. We've all had the experience of seeing something in a store that looked just right, and then getting it home and putting it on a shelf or in a closet and having it never see the light of day again.

However, nowadays, when I decide I want to purchase something, my first thought is, how cheap can I get it on eBay? I've bought so many different kinds of items I can't even begin to list them all: clothes, shoes (I'm a lucky average size and out of at least a dozen pair have only had one that I couldn't wear--still about average for regular shopping), a video camera, film, calendars, books, videos, small furniture items (shelves), an ice bucket, art supplies, dog and cat toys, and much more.

My most recent eBay finds have been coupons. I stumbled onto coupons when seeking a good bulk deal on dog treats. Coupons for $1 off on Madison's favorite treats were listed. I bid and got 20 coupons for around $2.50, including postage. That represents a savings of over $17 on something I would buy anyway at the local stores. It set me to thinking maybe there would be coupons for other things, so I typed "coupons" into the eBay search engine and let it search "all categories". It came up with over 21,000 hits! Good heavens! There were coupons for everything from diapers to dog food, vacations to restaurant meals, and all kinds of grocery and other items. The starting bids were generally low, say $0.99 for 20 coupons for $1.00 off on an item. Now obviously there aren't a lot of items I would generally need to buy 20 of at a time, but I got to thinking: If I pay $2.50 for some coupons and I use even 6 or 7 of them, I've got my "goodie" out of the deal, and I can share the rest with others.

So I jumped into the bidding. Pretty soon I had coupons coming in the mail like crazy. My mailman prefers coupons in envelopes to some of the more bulky packages I have received. He kids me and says, "I can always tell when you've been on eBay again." EBay makes it easy by linking with Pay Pal, on online paying system, which can directly debit either your bank account or a credit card. (I use my bank account, so I'm not tempted to completely lose control!) In all these transactions, I've only been "stiffed" once by a seller, ie. paid for an item and didn't receive it. Paying through Pay Pal gives up to $1000 per purchase insurance, so I will eventually get the money back.

Anyway, I emptied out a hall closet which had a lot of stuff crammed into it that really needed to go elsewhere (or into a yard sale), and cleared three shelves for items bought in bulk, including cereal, pickles, rice, ziploc bags, aluminum foil, deodorant, applesauce, tomato sauce, and several other similar items which won't spoil and that I will definitely need and use. I cleared a space in the garage to stack bags of kitty litter ($1.00 off per bag of the brand I use), and cat and dog food, and cleaning supplies, such as Chlorox, Tide, Lysol spray, and Swiffer refills. Again, these are all items which won't spoil and which I would buy over time anyway. Also, my freezer is choked full of Lean Cuisine, Bertolli's meals, cheese and a few other items I had single coupons for.

Along with bidding for multiple coupons of the same item, you can bid on grab bags of coupons , as for example, "150 grocery coupons, no babies or pets", starting bid $.99 plus $.99 postage and handling. Most of those go for around 2 or 3 dollars. I've won several and so far each batch has had enough coupons I could use so that it more than paid for the lot. I've been sharing coupons with my friends and neighbors, taking them to church, and giving them to my mom and nephew. I have an envelope full of coupons for my daughter, who will be thrilled to see lots of coupons for the energy bars she and her hubby buy and also the soda he likes.

My favorite coupon buy was one for Silk Soy Milk, $2.00 off any size, no expiration date. I bought two half gallons of Vanilla Silk soy milk (which I love!) at Wal-Mart last week. The price was $2.98 a half gallon, so with the coupons, I got 2 half gallons for $1.96!!! And I still have 18 coupons left!

I have to admit it takes some time to sort and file the coupons, since for most of them you have to keep track of expiration dates. I got a couple of small file folders, one for storage and one to use when I shop, to keep track. If it sounds like a lot of bother, consider this: in July I save $220 on merchandise using coupons.

My recent flurry of coupon bidding was what put me over the top to reach the dubious honor of being a Red Star Winner!

How, you may ask, can anyone make any money selling coupons on eBay? I thought about it, and after reading some of the info on seller's pages, I realized most of the sellers seem to be stay at home Moms, who are clipping coupons to bring in extra income for the family. Figure a seller gets all her family, friends and neighbors to give her their Sunday supplements, magazines, and other sources of coupons, plus what she can print out on the internet . She clips and batches coupons and sells in volume, say 10 batches a week making a "profit" of $1.50-$2.00 on each batch. That's around $60-90 a month income with relatively little effort, doing something that can be done at the kitchen table or in front of the TV while watching the kids. Some of the more desirable coupons, like the soy milk, can bring in bids of up to $7 or $8, so the profit is higher for the seller.

So, I guess it comes down to what I'd rather be known as: The Crazy Old Lady with All the Cats, or The Crazy Old Lady with All the Coupons. Either one is OK by me.