a new experiment

Hi to anyone who hasn't lost patience with me, as I've been inactive for a while. My daughter continues to battle illnesses - nothing serious, but we're learning that Kindergarten is as much about buildling up your immunity as it is about reading and math - for us, anyway :-/

Anyway, during some of my time home with wierd hours, I (of course) tried some new things online. One day, I decided to do some post-holiday cleaning - meaning, going through what we have now in light of the Christmas chaos and gift-giving. I did an eBay garage sale, basicly, listing some things that my daughter couldn't use anymore, parts of post-holiday cheap sets I had bought because I wanted the other parts of the set, free samples I had gotten recently, etc.

What continues to amaze me is how many freebies we get that we'll use if we can't get about a buck for it on eBay (and most of the time, $.99 listings are free), but someone else values it enough to pay up to $17 for it - seriously, I have gotten $5, $6, $7, $9, and $15 for free samples I received an didn't want. . . . all in the last 2 weeks.

Since I had more time at home, I put more thought into marketing ideas. I made a bigger deal of offering combined shipping discounts (which don't cost me anything the way I price them) and cross-promoting things. 2 moms bought multiple pieces of clothing for their kids to get the discounted shipping, and were probably willing to pay more because there was less paid on shipping. One mom bought a whole bunch of small toiletry types of things (including a Bonnie Bell bag that I bought with lip stuff in it for the lip stuff) to put together an assortment for her daughter - she bought some things for herself, as well. I had some tank tops that I don't where & are similar, so I listed them separately & promoted them by sending eBay messages to bidders suggesting they stretch their shipping dollars by checking out my other listings. I had so many listings, this was very effective. Can't do it all the time, but it was easier for me than a garage sale & I made a good amount for stuff we weren't using anyway . . .

So, of course all of that money ends up in Paypal, and there are plenty of fun things to do with that - you can pay the $1.50 to get a check sent, of course. You can shop on eBay or iTunes or Netflix, or a number of other online merchants with Paypal credits. I opted to shop for gift cards on eBay for places like Target, iTunes and Sephora.

There are some tricks to making this work best. eBates is a shopping site that offers cashback and a collection of coupon codes for many online merchants, including eBay, Sephora, and iTunes (and Blinds.com - I got a great deal on that). If you're interested in this, please let me know. There are referral bonuses & you get bonus sign-ups either way. Anyway, I go onto eBay through eBates & get a percentage back quarterly.

eBay now offers eBay bucks, as well, so a percentage of what you spend there comes back to you toward future eBay purchases. The credit card we have linked to Paypal also gives a cashback percentage. Target now offers 5% off everyday when you use the Target Visa, so when I bid on Target gift cards, I factor in the 5% I'd get on the credit card anyway. We also deduct the amount we spend on Target gift cards from our monthly grocery budget (since that's where we shop), so we don't end up paying interest on it & negate any savings.

After I receive the gift cards, I shop through eBates again & go to whichever site, using my (discounted) gift card or store merch credit to pay. The percentages individually are quite small. Add them together, and my husband would say, "that's how banks make their money - a little here and a little there). I'm surprised how much looser our budget feels in the last few weeks of doing this. I have also been outbid on many gift cards. Many people are willing to bid higher than face value, figuring they're getting it back in eBay bucks or whatever . . . I don't do that. I simply enter my max bid & if it's outbid, so be it - then I feel good about helping another eBay seller get the most for their product by bidding it up :-) I have, in the end, made satisfying impact.

One thing that didn't work so well for me this time was a Borders card . . . I got one for Christmas, which was very generous & thoughtful. I love audio books (thus, the iTunes gift cards), and was very excited to check it out. Wow - is that place more expensive than other options! I went through eBates & ended up shopping & finding a few things that made sense - enough to get the free shipping, and I've received less than half of the items . . . it's been weeks. There have been a number of irritating little things & I now understand why Plastic Jungle and GiftCard Rescue (also great places to get discounted gift cards or sell them) would only offer about $17.50 for a $25 Border's gift card . . . the money just doesn't go as far there, I'm finding . . .

I hope you're having a good January - it tends to be a gloomy month for me after the holiday hubbub and people getting sick a lot & my husband and I both working lots of weekends. I believe in retail therapy, however, and am finding fiscally responsible ways to indulge. I got clearance clothes at Target (with my discounted gift cards) for the whole family, shopped the Sephora clearance . . . you get the idea. Since we had been very deliberate about controlling holiday spending, we were able to have more fun taking advantage of the January deals. Maybe that will be a fun for you, too?

A client family of mine from the past gave each of their kids money every year for Christmas, and information on the sales for the next day - they let them pick what they really wanted & made the money go farther by incenting them to shop the after-Christmas sales . . . pretty smart & the kids loved it! Another great idea. I love having wrapped presents under the tree, so I'll pass on that one, but maybe it will work for you?

Keep smiling & God bless you and yours in 2011!