Have you Taught your Kids to Sell on Ebay?

As parents know, learning does not just take place inside the school room or inside their workbooks.  Actually, quite the opposite. I believe that LASTING learning often happens during real-life.   I could list hundreds of ways to incorporate life into your learning, but one I wanted to point out today is Ebay.  I have been selling on ebay since 1999 after a friend introduced me to it.  I started before I even owned a digital camera...that's a long time ago.

If you haven't yet learned to sell on ebay, I highly recommend it!!  It's simple to learn, and once you do, you will likely be hooked,  and then you can teach your own kids!!

This post is not a "how to" but an overview on WHY selling on ebay is great to incorporate into your kids' lives.

Here are a few good reasons:

• Many kids get into the habit of spending.  Selling and making money can be just as fun, and it is a much better habit to learn to think like an entrepreneur.  Looking for nice quality or highly desired items that they could purchase to resell.
• It will help them declutter.  When they see that the toy or clothing that is sitting there unused and can be turned into cash, it motivates you to declutter!
• It teaches them a skill they can be proud of.
• Often people want to sell things on ebay but they don't want to learn. We have had dozens of people ask us to sell their junk on ebay for a 50% or so commission.  That translates into a nice little work from home job for kids.  No age requirement necessary.  (I have kids as young as 12 that have mastered ebay and do fantastic!!)  
• It teaches them how to type and describe items and type sentences.  Language Arts right there!!
• It teaches them math.  They get to calculate postal rates, sales and fees on paypal and ebay.  They can do it on paper or learn a system like Excel if you want to deepen the education. 
• They become familiar with how to package boxes/envelopes. How to calculate shipping rates.  Learning how to track packages to make sure they arrived. 
• They learn to deal with people.  Most transactions are smooth and easy but occasionally you'll get a picky buyer who finds SOMETHING to complain about.  Voila...people skills right there...learning how to keep customers happy.  
• Digital Photography.  A picture is worth a thousand words...learning to take a good picture so buyers can see exactly what they are bidding on.  It's not hard but most kids haven't learned that yet.   Also editing photos, rotating pictures, cropping etc. 
• Finding out what something is worth.  It's important to do quick research on completed items to see beforehand if it's even worth your time to sell that item.  This comes in VERY handy when you're at the clearance section at Walmart,  or at Goodwill or a yard sale to check right then to see if it's worth your time to sell.   Sometimes you see that it isn't but often you'll see that this $2 item sells for $30 on ebay!  Or this $20 Lego set will sell for $60 online.  Grab it!  
• patience...sometimes you can sell something quickly for cheap, but if you stay patient and stick to your price, if reasonable, you'll make more money if you just keep it on ebay and wait for the right buyer.
• One year, when my older kids were younger, we tracked packages as part of geography.  We would mark on a map where each item sold and put a mark on the map to show all our sales that year geographically.  
• Most shipping labels are printed at home and the package can be thrown in the mailbox.  Sometimes it's too large or you have too many packages to fit in your mailbox so it requires a trip to the post office.  This is good for social skills--- having them take the package(s) into the post office and handle the transaction.     When my oldest son was 4, he was able to do this. (It was a small town and I could see the door of the post office and knew the postal lady)  Since the label is all ready, he just had to wait in line and hand it to the postal worker.  You may want your kids to be older if you live in a larger town and can't see inside clearly. 
• With the money they will make, they can open a savings account and learn banking.
• If you believe in tithing, that is another good part of earning money is giving some away to the church or a ministry that they feel passionate about.     Raising money for a missions project is another good reason for kids to learn to make money.  

So there you have it! I'm sure there are even more reasons why selling on Ebay is a good idea to teach your kids.  What other ideas do you have?