Online Sellers! What's The Craziest Thing You Can Sell On Ebay?

Do you enjoy participating in onlines sales and auction sites, either as a seller or as a buyer? Perhaps you haven't yet got into the popular pastime of selling off your old junk – or delightful, valuable vintage items! - on online websites yet, but you're considering it as an option? (Certainly with all this talk of recessionary times, and current crazy levels of unemployment, many of us are searching for every extra way to earn an extra buck or two. Maybe online sales could be a way for you?)

Uh-Oh On Ebay

Now back in the day, Ebay was the only game in town when it came to online sales for the smalltime or amateur seller. It can fairly be said that this is no longer true. Sites such as Ebid.net, Play.com, Amazon, Bonanzle, Etsy etc.etc. Have all contributed to the dissolution of Ebay's former stranglehold on the market. Some of these competitor sites are bigger than others – Amazon especially being a Goliath that begins to seem to dwarf Ebay as it looms ever larger as an online retail force. Many of them are specialized to some degree or another, e.g. Etsy in handmade craft goods, or Play.com in music and electronic entertainment media. But added up together, they can be said to have, nibble by nibble, taken a hefty chunk out of Ebay's share of the online sales market.

What's the best approach if you're thinking of dipping your toes into the game of online selling? Of course one of the media's favourite old reliable storylines on a slow day is the latest tale of a crazy online auction for the weird and wonderful one-off item. Toasted cheese, photos of electronics, entire lives, false teeth, empty Harrods carrier bags and broken Pez dispensers – you name it, someone's probably tried to sell it on Ebay. And some have succeeded and even made money selling the most crazy items!

Is the game worth the candle though? Is it still worth putting the odd strange, eccentric or just plain nuts item up for sale, either for its own potential sales value, or for the extra publicity value that it might provide for other items you have for sale? Well, perhaps it might be worth a try on sites where it's free or cheap to list, such as Ebid.net or Ecrater. Sadly, regarding the fame and fortune of Ebay, many sellers these days complain that increasing costs of fees, combined with a reduction in traffic, makes ventures of the sales variety on the famous and once well-beloved site an increasingly risky affair.

Still, if you're looking for a place to offload that collection of 70s breakfast cereal packets, or the cotton-wool and glitter Father Christmas beard you made at school when you were five, then it doesn't hurt to have a bit of a punt on one of the cheaper online sales and auction sites and see if you can generate a bit of interest. Who knows, maybe you could make a bob or two – or at least have a bit of fun!