Making money on the internet

I’m not saying the wolf is knocking on my door just yet however I fear he is about half way down the drive.

Recently I have tried to bolster my income by selling a few items on a well known internet auction site.

My thought was that a couple of pounds here and a few pence there should surely soon add up and help my out of the tight spot in which I find myself.

For quite a while the thought of selling a few items seemed appealing but the cost of each listing was simply too much however every few weeks they do a free listing weekend which is a most welcome offer.

Waiting for the first bidder to come along can be quite entertaining not to mention having a go at marketing some quite obscure items such as a broken light bulb, an envelope of bubble wrap and a box of polystyrene packaging which came from something purchased by myself on the same site.

Naturally yours truly has tried to raise the most possible for my items indeed on some occasions I have put a higher than normal value on them after all the listing costs nothing so why not bump up the price and hope that someone is foolish enough to buy?

All was going well until the other week when an abusive message arrived from a bidder ridiculing my inflated prices which I thought quite rude.

When buying items myself I feel it polite to pay promptly and always leave feedback but for some reason the people purchasing from me don’t seem to share my ideals.

About half of the people who bought haven’t bothered to leave feedback which is most disappointing however at least they haven’t left negative feedback.

Some of the bidders haven’t even bothered to pay for their items resulting in me having to open a non-payment case to avoid the auction site taking their cut of the final sale price and leaving me out of pocket.

I even prepared several items for posting in the hope they were paid for later that evening but sadly they weren’t resulting in my time being wasted hand writing the address label and the loss of several pence on a plastic envelope which had the label affixed to it.

It seems the whole internet auction game is geared in favour of the buyer leaving the poor seller at their mercy.

On the items that have sold the postal charges and fees from the auction site has eaten into any profits leaving me with a very small amount for my efforts.

Is selling items on the internet worth it?

I am beginning to think not, it has more of an entertainment value than the ability to make a sustainable income.

What do you think?

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