Making $500 a month on eBay
MAKING ENDS MEET A look at how Chicagoans are coping in a rough economy
As gas and food prices started to soar this year, Chicagoan Ron Derby was thrown another unexpected curve -- his work hours were cut by 15 percent.
The father of an 18-year-old daughter who just started college needed to find a way to make up for the lost income, and he turned to eBay in May to help make ends meet.
(John J. Kim/Sun-Times)
He has been averaging $400 to $500 a month in sales as a result, he said.
"The very first thing I actually sold was a lighted beer sign, which I bought for $5," he said. "I put it on eBay and I sold it for $75. That's what kind of got me hooked."
Derby's full-time job is working in parts sales at an automobile dealership. He had hoped to find a second part-time job after his weekly hours went from 45 to 38.
"You're on a budget; you have to basically try to keep that going," said Derby, 44. "I couldn't find a part-time job. Someone suggested to try eBay as a way of making extra money, so I did."
Derby has plenty of company. According to a survey in April from eBay, 59 percent of adult respondents said they're selling items online to earn extra income.
The supplemental income Derby has received from his eBay sales has helped him absorb the 30 percent spike he has seen in his grocery bill and higher gas prices, which at their peak sent the cost of filling up his Buick LeSabre to more than $90, he said.
Among items he has sold on eBay are eight-track tapes, hubcabs, musical instruments, Atari game cartridges and car wax, he said.
He started out by looking in his basement and garage for things he no longer needed or wanted.
"After I ran out of that stuff, I started going to flea markets, garage sales, the wholesale stores," he said. "I've continued with that, and that's kind of how its taken off from there."
Before opening his account on eBay, he said he'd never frequented garage sales or flea markets.
Now, "I'm a regular," he said. "At the flea market they know me by name. It's kind of once you get going with it, you kind of get pulled in. I go to garage sales, yard sales, flea markets on a weekly basis now."
What are you doing to make ends meet? Write to psmith@suntimes.com.