To sell or not

RFW

soolin said:

Postage can actually bring people together as well one of the selling groups I use has stopped adverts for collection items and is allowing posted items to go ahead. An elderly lady asked if there were any teapots available as she was housebound and in isolation and  had several pounds of loose tea and her cat had just knocked her only china teapot off the unit . She was really upset, not making her usual pots of tea was the final straw , she could cope on her own but losing her teapot was just about it as far as she was concerned.

I have teapots as they turn up in every mixed box I buy, so I showed her the ones I had and posted her choice out on Wednesday and it arrived today. She offered to pay postage but had no idea how she was going to manage it so I’m obviously not bothered. Apparently she is going to knit me some gloves to say thank you ! 

Someone else has posted baby clothes to a new mum, others have swapped books for children by post , it’s a real community effort . 

One of my favourite things is to get messages from housebound people who have been picked up by my products. This happens throughout the year. One lady is housebound and in the middle of nowhere in the Highlands, she's a regular customer. It strikes me that there are now tens of thousands more in her position. There are many more important people out there but if I can help bring some happiness even for a short time that's good enough for me.

soolin

RFW said:

soolin said:

Postage can actually bring people together as well one of the selling groups I use has stopped adverts for collection items and is allowing posted items to go ahead. An elderly lady asked if there were any teapots available as she was housebound and in isolation and  had several pounds of loose tea and her cat had just knocked her only china teapot off the unit . She was really upset, not making her usual pots of tea was the final straw , she could cope on her own but losing her teapot was just about it as far as she was concerned.

I have teapots as they turn up in every mixed box I buy, so I showed her the ones I had and posted her choice out on Wednesday and it arrived today. She offered to pay postage but had no idea how she was going to manage it so I’m obviously not bothered. Apparently she is going to knit me some gloves to say thank you ! 

Someone else has posted baby clothes to a new mum, others have swapped books for children by post , it’s a real community effort . 

One of my favourite things is to get messages from housebound people who have been picked up by my products. This happens throughout the year. One lady is housebound and in the middle of nowhere in the Highlands, she's a regular customer. It strikes me that there are now tens of thousands more in her position. There are many more important people out there but if I can help bring some happiness even for a short time that's good enough for me.

That reminded me of a lady I used to deal with on one of the Scottish islands, it started off with her buying some school things from me, many years ago, then we got talking outside of ebay,and we had an arrangement that I would buy her school clothes from M and S (or wherever) and send them, she paid me for goods, postage and a bit extra for my time. We did that all the while her children were at school as it was cheaper than travelling to the local big town. 

Locally now the various groups are really pulling together, if someone who isn't going out desperately needs something then someone seems to find a way of getting it to them , usually by post, it is very good to see everyone helping out in times like this. Just looking now there is someone who is looking for maternity clothes as they are struggling , someone else wanting sewing thread as they have started some unfinished projects and run out of sewing machine cotton. 

Fairy_Shazza

I ended all my ebay items early. I had one item which sold the week before lockdown was announced which I'd been trying to sell for ages, it was £60 which I simply couldn't afford to miss out on. If it had been just a few pounds I would've cancelled the sale and told the buyer I wasn't prepared to send it. All the other items I had listed were less than £10 and I wasn't prepared to go to the PO if any of them sold, even though it is within walking distance of our house. 

It's annoying as I was just starting to get into the swing of selling stuff again but it can't be helped. I'm not bothering to list on Schpock or FB Marketplace because of no contact and social distancing. Instead I'm going to start putting everything in a box/cupboard photographing it as I go along ready to list when things start getting back to normal and things aren't quite so risky, 

Lazydayz71

Fairy_Shazza said:

Instead I'm going to start putting everything in a box/cupboard photographing it as I go along ready to list when things start getting back to normal and things aren't quite so risky, 

Good luck. Let's hope it's not too long before things start getting back to normal. I hope one month from now the situation will have greatly improved... Fingers crossed.