I did exactly what you are talking about. I sold all of my DVD’s on ebay. Rather than selling one at a time, I grouped them into 3, 4 and 5 DVD Lots based on similarity. I actually did really well this way and I saved time as well.

The money in turn went to our house fund, so it was worth it for me.

Hmmm, no that isn’t right.

If you won’t accept $x in trade for that hour then that’s the value of all hours. How many of us 9-5 Joes & Janes would sell that hour of perfect summer afternoon on a hammock for $13 and change?

I really hate trying to define the monetary value of things that don’t have a monetary value. You can’t buy an hour or a few days on ebay — you can only make choices about what to do now.

I’ve sold a lot of stuff on eBay and it’s been a drag. There’s no way I’m doing that on my day off unless I see no alternative.

To #36 specifically (and everyone else) I just received a check from someone whom I had sell items on Ebay for me. He was a customer of our business, and then I turned-around and used him! These were all electronics and security-related items that were old or could not be re-sold directly to a customer in our business. Yes, it cost me 22% above the Ebay and shipping fees I would have paid anyway, but I still made decent money and the real key was, like others here, I’d had the stuff sitting for awhile and never did anything about it. So it was justifiable to me simply to have the stuff out of my house and I realized that to bemoan the money lost in selling was to kid myself into thinking I would have actually done it.
As for the ‘what your time is worth’ theory, I subscribe to it. As others have said, though, it is subjective. I run a family business with my husband and technically, I don’t get paid! So what is my time worth? I can’t judge it like that – I have to look at what the activity is going to bring me in terms of potential business, and then also weigh the following -
-Frequency of the event
-Cost associated with event (since we don’t get steady $$)
-Potential contacts made

If there is a yearly or monthly event for example, at the same time as one of my weekly networking meetings, even if it’s not work-related I would probably choose that because the likelihood of my going ‘next time’ is uncertain as is if there will indeed *be* a next time.
We have gotten business from being in a Home Depot parking lot and enjoying our hobbies – there is no ‘right’ place to find a customer, though networking is obviously a place where people expect to talk about business.
Since I have a family, I also have to weigh being broke now because of financial decisions and defaults or later because I’m paying for my daughter’s therapy. LOL Balance is a beautiful thing. (when you find it, let me know!)

Your time isn’t as valuable as you think it is.

I admit that I find all this nickel-and-diming a bit irritating….. Trent, why don’t you write and article exporing “the fallacy of costing your time”?

Respectfully your,

In addition, I find it disingenuous for the same reason that other posters do: you are comparing a daytime wage with an idle nighttime activity; in other words, you are pretending that your free time is being paid, when it is not. Even if you were not on eBay, you would not be working, you would be reading, surfing the Web, or otherwise messing around (for free).

My last contention is with the details; other people have pointed out how ridiculous the eBay costs and potential profits are, and as a very experienced eBayer I have to agree. BUT I have to say that I would not try to sell CDs or DVDs individually on eBay either. You make money on eBay with designer labels (clothes, watches, teacups), even low-end designers, by exploiting sales or hitting discount stores and flipping it online. DVDs aren’t worth the hassle (significantly less than what he states but still).

My advice for anyone interested in making a bit of extra money online is to look at Craigslist. Especially, for some reason, sofas and couches. This is the area that I excel in, and friends/family/coworkers regularly come to me looking for help with listings. The trick is to clean up the item and the area (squalor rarely sells items), take nice pictures (even a steady hand with your cell phone does wonders), write an enthusiastic review with enough specific details that a buyer will think it’s worth the time to come see it, and if possible put a link in to a comparable item new (and say outright how much it would cost new, preferably in the title). Most people put minimal effort into Craigslist and get minimal returns as a result; a bit of enthusiasm and detail goes a very long way.

1) 9$ extra profit for 40minutes is $13.50/hour which, if compared with your “true hourly wage” as you detail in an early post, may not be so far off for some, considering there are no extra costs involved. Also, the time involved is at your whim – you can check the account and deal with it when you have time, not have to report for work at a certain place and time for an uninterrupted session, making this $13.50 for a more flexible hour than an employment hour – even if you freelance you would need to spend more than 10min a time on a project.

2) Assuming that this is a collection you at some point attached sentimental value to, the psychological cost of having just sold it off as a bulk collection may also play a part. My parents moved house just as I left home, and suggested I sell off some old toys and books to a collector rather than take them with me or them paying to transport them to their next home. Ebay-type sites weren’t really big then, and we phoned a local collector, who came to our house, looked over the whole collection, and offered a lump sum, which I accepted and he took the lot. I still feel that I gave up too easily on so many childhood memories, and selling them individually, at least certain choice items, might have made it easier to part with them

I also had that a-ha moment myself today while driving to fill up gas. There is a gas station 6 miles away from my work, but not on the way, which is 15 cents cheaper per gallon. I could go up there & save a buck eighty a tank, every week – that could sure add up. Except that it adds another 12 miles to my commute back & forth, and at my car’s mpg – that is a little less then 1/2 a gallon, which at today’s gas price’s is – a buck fifty. Factoring in my time, it is not even close to a wash to pinch that penny – even if it could add up over the long run.

This is how I justify shipping on many purchases. I just paid $11 in shipping on something, but I don’t have to get the car, fight traffic, and browse around a store.

Your note regarding the laptop purchase was interesting…sometimes when I read other posts about research I am amazed that the amount of time you spend was worthwhile. Obviously, you can turn your research into a post, usually, so it’s probably ok for you, but I think most of us would run into your laptop problem for many of our purchases: it simply wouldn’t be worth it to get the BEST price, just check the AVERAGE price and make sure we’re not getting too severely gouged.

OK, so maybe his examples don’t work for some of you.

And if you are totally unemployed and have nothing else to do with your time (Really? Housework, kids? Errands, repairs??? Looking for work? Interviews?), then maybe you could waste hours and hours, if not days, selling stuff hither, thither and yon.

I’ve seen people do this. Yea. they make a few bucks. (And for whatever reason, for most people, we’re talking about a not so great amount of money)

But what else could you have been doing with that time? TOo many people get caught up in the sell-off when there is no real payoff. It’s a great time-waster for many people. And if you look closely, an excuse NOT to be doing something else.

Each person sets the value on their time, based on their own life.

What is a “waste” for one is significant to another.

So all of us here are expressing our opinions, as is Trent, about the value of our time and what we choose to do with it.

One point I wanted to make here was about how people are always looking for the “cheapest” airfares, for travel. People often waste hours, days, etc. to save $10 or $20. It’s just crazy.

If you educate yourself on how to stay on top of the deals, you don’t have to do that.

If you know when to buy and where to look for discounts, you don’t need to waste time.

There are plenty of online sites, resources that can flag the discounts for you. It’s only people who know nothing about travel who waste time looking for fares that don’t exist.

(If you haven’t flown in years, for example, or are familiar with prices on a particular route, you’re probably thinking in terms of what you used to pay or have no idea what the rates and ranges are NOW. Educate yourself.