TATE January 22, 2003 Op-Ed Section Editor: Erin Culhane the other press : a i. Dawn-Louise McLeod OP Columnist Are you addicted to junk? In other words, are you an inveterate packrat? If you're not sure, take this quiz: - Are you incapable of passing a garage sale without stopping to look and buy? - Do you extend your visit to some nondescript town until the local thrift shop’s next business day? - Do you pass up a lunch date in favour of co-coordinating your next garage sale? - Do you have trouble finding the front door of your home—from both the inside and the outside? - Do the contents of your closets resemble the contents of a West End Smithrite container? If your answer to at least three of these questions is yes, then you might consider reading the cleaning guru Don Aslett’s classic book, Dejunking Your Life, his epistle to the benefits of getting rid of stuff. My internalization of Aslett’s advice, however, keeps get- ting sabotaged by my urge to acquire anything that is old and—well, let’s face it—kind of beat-up and scruffy- looking. My taste in men aside, the result is that my home is chockablock with relics of other people's lives. Over the years I’ve collected so much junk that it’s like having my own personal museum. If, like me, you are beyond redemption, you need an excuse to keep getting things. And what better excuse for acquisition than to say, “it’s my business”—that is, provided you have not only the fortitude to part with your possessions, but also the ability to make money getting rid of them. Ditch the garage sales and the Buy and Sell—the hip way to sell in the 00s is online, and the newest craze to hit suburbia is eBay. I used to hold garage sales quarterly, and make a few hun- dred bucks each time. Though not bad at the bantering and haggling that went along with it, as I got busier with family, school, and work, I no longer had the time or energy needed to co- ordinate such sales. Enter eBay. It allows you to run a single-proprietor business out of your basement in your underwear, and you don't even have to keep retail hours. I first suspected that I should consider © page 6 opinionsubmit@hotmail.com online selling when my parents started bragging to me that they had made a few thousand selling old books and records that no one in their right mind would have thought twice about a few years ago. But my computer skills were next to nil, nor did I have a digital camera or a scanner. That all changed after three semesters at Douglas College in a completely unrelated field—in which, nevertheless, I learned skills that directly apply to sell- ing online. After my first item sold for over C$50, I began photographing and listing stuff that was doing noth- ing except taking up space. While my girls were mesmerized by , and my son’s eyes had that Final Fantasy 7 patina (the 7 stands for the minimum number of hours my son says are needed to play it), I was busy either researching, listing, or checking my items. An unfortunate side effect, however, is that you read a lot of bad descrip- tions online, and your language skills begin to falter. My writing has recent- ly been reduced to the level of Fraser Valley girl-speak, “Um, like—stylin’, babe”—worse, I’ve started to use exclamation points in abundance. How do you start selling? First, stand up and confess, “I am a junka- holic.” Then you need an inventory. This is where years of window-shop- ping can pay off. The pickings are get- ting slim out there, though, as more people become savvy to what’s worth- while. The internet—the very tool that makes it possible to sell at higher prices— also makes it less likely you'll find things at dirt-cheap prices. Gone are the days of the five-cent or even the five-dollar mega-valuable item. And personality matters. It helps if youre not only detail-oriented and organized, but thrive on change, imperfection, and challenge. Example: the other night, we had dinner in an opulent suburban subdivision of per- fect homes—you know, the kind of place where you could lick the side- walks and your health would actually improve. Surveying the trimmed lawns and demure decorator colours, my son said “Mom—I know, you always like the old dump with a neatly hole in the roof and the door falling off its hinges. That way you can fix it up.” If this describes you, you too will be happy down by the eBay. I must admit, it’s not all fun, nor is it instant money. Like anything, it’s a lot of hard work, but you do it because you love it. Patience, lack of fastidiousness, and the abil- ity to visualize all have their rewards. Even if its covered in crud, jumbled in a pile of other junk in a mouldy cardboard box, you must be able to look at an item and see its potential. And you need patience to photo- graph and write descriptions of your items, and to endure frustrations as you travel the tech path of eBaying. I'm now kicking myself for the things I either threw out or sold, at my garage sales, at a fraction of their real worth. When it comes to reselling your goods, eBay sure beats standing out in your carport in the freezing cold while you haggle with someone who wants to pay $1 for an item youve priced at $5. Oh sure, garage sales are still great places for getting rid of large, unwieldy pieces of 20-year-old Ikea furniture and those piles of baby clothes you've been sav- ing just in case you decided to have another kid. But when it comes to tidily shippable items like knick-knacks, books, and cloth- ing, online selling is the way to go. On eBay you can even sell real estate. Online selling can supplement your stu- dent loan. You do have to pay a small fee for “insertion’—the unfortunate word eBay uses to mean “listing fee.” This is generally less than a dollar, although you do pay more if the item sells. To register, you must be brave enough to give your credit card num- ber over the internet to eBay. Sellers and buyers alike must register, and everyone is legally bound to complete transactions. I could write a book about this. Heck, maybe I will! (Note the exclamation mark.) Until then, go to for a free browse and information. iconoclastcom@yahoo.ca i'm sure the people of British Columbia UT Matsa em Lh aa dal t tragic episode erst attics mi =e J.J. McCullough - OP Cartoonist