Buying (and Selling) on ebay.com
ebay.com can be a wonderful place to shop for baby and children’s items. In fact, it’s the first place I check when shopping online. Often, sellers on ebay receive new baby and children’s goods in a wholesale lot, which enables them to sell to you, the consumer, much more cheaply than some of the brand-name baby stores. Also, you can find parents who are sellling used baby clothing and baby gear that still has much life left, perfect if you don’t mind second-hand clothing or goods for your baby.
Personally, I always buy my son’s winter outerwear on ebay, second-hand. Winter coats and snowsuits are used for just one season, and hardly show any wear, so they are the perfect item to buy used. I have had much success selling used baby clothes on ebay as well. If you’ve never tried, it doesn’t cost much to sell on ebay, and their interface makes it easy to start selling.
Before buying from any ebay seller, check their feedback. You especially want to pay attention to any negative feedback they’ve received during the past 6 months. I wouldn’t necessarily reject a seller for having negative feedback, but if they repeatedly receive negative feedback about the same thing (for example, slow shipping times, excessive shipping prices, or items with defects) then I would look for another seller.
Also remember to check shipping rates, as some ebay sellers will offer free shipping on larger items that would usually require a high shipping rate. Whatever you’re looking for, ebay.com is a great place to start!
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Sadly, if Congress does not change the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, we will no longer be able to buy and sell used children’s clothing on ebay. If buying/selling children’s items on ebay is important to you, I urge you to write your congressman!
Here are a couple of articles about it:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2008587800_danny04.html
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-thrift2-2009jan02,0,2083247.story
The way it is currently written, ebay will need to pull all used children’s item auctions after Feb. 10 because it will be illegal to resell them.
January 5th, 2009 at 3:58 pmThanks for letting me know about this - I had no idea! I just read both articles you listed above - this is terrible news for consignment shops and resale shops as well. I hope some sort of reprieve happens before Feb. 10. I will be writing my congressman (and anyone else I can think of!)
January 5th, 2009 at 4:49 pmIf you want to find out who your local congressman is, go to https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml. You will have to type in your zip code + 4 digits, which can be found at http://www.usps.com/zip4. Once you find your local representative, often there will be a link to email him or her directly to complain about the wording of this new act and the detrimental effect its passage will have on your state’s, and the country’s economy.
January 5th, 2009 at 4:57 pm