posted on May 18, 2001 06:04:51 PM
After posting here for a while, it seems there are a LOT of gals selling on ebay. (some of you have nicknames that made me think you where a guy for a while
So, does anyone have an idea if the gals out number the guys?
posted on May 18, 2001 06:15:46 PM
I think the gals outnumber the guys 2 to 1 but maybe among the fulltimers who do it as their only income the guys probably outnumber the gals. Just an opinion as there are a lot of lurkers and posters that don't often post so it's really hard to tell.
And as you mentioned a lot of names that I thought were guys but weren't, both here and on ebay.
posted on May 18, 2001 06:32:28 PM
I don't know. I suspect that stay-at-home mothers who sell online for the scheduling flexibility make up a significant portion of Ebayers. I don't know how many there are in the grand scheme of things, but I suspect that Ebay has made bill-paying time easier for lots of families where the husband is the one working outside the home. Ebay is ideal for stay-at-home parents (women or men), but I think there are lots of women who are making it work for them.
posted on May 18, 2001 07:00:23 PM
I'm a DUDE!
Same as unknown most buyers are female but I too sell jewelry.
I find my male bidders tend to be nonpayers more often then female on the occasions I've sold men's items
JB
posted on May 18, 2001 08:38:50 PM
I'm a subscriber to several frugality/simple living/coupon cutting/cheapskate/freebie mailing lists and websites. One which I will not mention by name is in the top 250 of all websites visited for sheer numbers of readers (HUGE numbers of new posts daily on their message boards, too) and it seems that virtually EVERY poster over there sells on Ebay (they mention it as a sideline when they share tips on frugality). I would guess 90% of them are women and guess also that a big percentage of them are stay at home moms/religious people/etc. who probably had no business or collectibles or auction background at all before discovering ebay.
for every seller making a living there are thousands who are using Ebay to fund private school fees, insurance on the minivan, the cable bill, and all the other nice things that living on one income usually means doing without.
interesting how Ebay took off just as the interest in being a stay at home mom got seriously under way. probably part of what fueled ebay's rise was the collective desire of a hundred thousand women (or more) who wanted to work out of their homes to spend more time with their children, and who also end up spending as much as they sell on Ebay as well.
I have no kids, but I'm interested in the stay at home mom/homeschool phenomenon that is changing this country.
wish I could stay home with my doggie but it's not quite the same thing.
posted on May 18, 2001 09:16:22 PM
>>>>>>>interesting how Ebay took off just as the interest in being a stay at home mom got seriously under way<<<<<<
There were stay at home moms long before ebay. Ebay just gave them a source of income. Virtually every Mom in the 1950s and before was a SAHM. Now they just have a way to bring in a little extra money.
I don't have kids, started selling on ebay because medical problems prevented me from doing a "real" job, as most people call it. I tell people I sell full time on ebay, and they look at me as if I am on welfare because don't have the get up and go about me to work! If you ask me, working even though I went through heck with my medical problems is much more than most people would have done. So what if I had to have a job I could set my own hours its still a job, and I'm supporting myself.
Interstringly, I sell mainly to women, but when I buy it seems I buy from men.
I'm a stay at home mom to my guinea pigs. Does that count?
[ edited by jenndiggy1 on May 18, 2001 09:20 PM ]
posted on May 18, 2001 09:24:07 PM
I'm really not surprised that women have taken the opportunity that Ebay offers to become entrepreneurs.
The major obstacles to women starting businesses have always been the initial $$ investment and the investment of time required. These are two of the most difficult resources for women to obtain.
Beginning an Ebay business does not take a great deal of cash to start, and the work can be accomplished in small amounts of time taken between household chores and other obligations.
Many people have said it here, but I'll say it again. Ebay has changed the face of business - opening business opportunity to people who had previously been shut out, and changing the primary and secondary retail markets to the world are only a few of its effects.
And Ebay still has no idea what it did or how important that change will be in the history of society.
El
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
posted on May 18, 2001 10:39:04 PM
I realize that there were lots of stay at home moms in the 50s but I wasn't even alive then so they are not a common or usual thing to me. I grew up in the 70s. In my white middle class suburban elementary school, for instance, I cannot think of ONE kid I knew who had a mom that stayed home. in the 70s they were all doing the Superwomen thing, going to law school, working in real estate, working in hospitals or schools or offices. But now my niece goes to the same school and 25 years later, things have changed. Now lots of her friends' moms are stay at home moms. Thoughts on this have definitely changed (or if you want to put it differently you could say they went back to how they used to be, even if I don't remember that time).
Are you talking about mycoupons.com? If so, it is nice to meet another mycouponer. I don't post there nearly as much as I used to, probably because I am posting here at auctionwatch more than I used to. I also go to several other frugality boards on a fairly regular basis.
I agree with you. The reason that I said in my previous post that stay-at-home mothers were so prevalent on Ebay is because of what I have seen on those frugality websites. The women (and a few men) there share all sorts of ideas on how to make ends meet and get ahead financially and many of them always sing the praises of selling or trading online. In fact, I got the motivation to start selling on Ebay myself (with DH) from reading other people's success stories on those frugality sites. Also, I turned two coworkers in my office on to Ebay selling (women). One is a widow with a son soon to go to college and the other is now a stay-at-home mom. Both love the opportunities that Ebay has opened up to them.
[ edited by squinkle99 on May 19, 2001 05:11 AM ]
posted on May 19, 2001 04:42:52 PM
paislydaisy:
>You guessed right, I'm a female.
With that nickname, it was easy Even after hanging out here for a year, there are still some posters I'm not sure about....
Several of you made some good points about why so many women are selling on eBay, and it doesn't really surprize me. Out of all my Cousins, I'm the only GUY that is selling on ebay, the other 3 that are sellers are all Gals (and they sell WAY different stuff than I do.)
posted on May 19, 2001 05:35:36 PM
yep, you got it! I like mycoupons.com for the good deals, although I rarely post. The crowd there tends to take sarcasm or irony literally IMO, and I found that people were misinterpreting my posts. So now I just lurk and soak up all the good ideas. I LOVE being frugal. I was even mentioned in one of the Tightwad Gazette books!
posted on May 19, 2001 06:07:22 PM
I have a part-time job that I hate. Ebay enables me to stay part-time and avoid my idiot boss, who hates women. You guessed it--I'm female.
posted on May 19, 2001 06:52:52 PM
A lot on this board think I'm a male.....WRONG...I'm a FEMALE.
When I was a stay at home MOM I did REFUNDING.
Anyone one remember "DOLLARS DAILY". I made over $600.00 a month and spent LESS then $10.00 a week in grocerys for a family of 6.
It was a "GLORIOUS" time for me and my family...it allowed me to stay at home and raise my children the way I wanted them raise.
Now I'm onto bigger and better things.....eBay.
BUT......I still have TONS of OLD(70's) product labels in my attic, that I have not looked at for YEARS......HMMMMMMMMMMM how much do you think they are worth?
posted on May 19, 2001 07:13:31 PM
I'm a lady too. I have had less trouble using Mel than Melanie when online. I have used Mel for two years now. I never try to fool people but alot of the payments come in the mail to Mr Mel.
posted on May 19, 2001 07:41:20 PM
Well, I'm female.. and new to posting. I think most of my customers are female.. some don't disclose.
I'm a stay at home mom now, thankz to ebay and my website. I was injured on the job and I'm a struggling widow/single mom of 2. When I was working I was gone 70+ hours a week. My kids have BOTH become a joy to be around, and grades have gone up. I'm forever thankful to my new business and ebay, no matter how much I grumble about the rules.
posted on May 20, 2001 04:24:00 AM
Packer, always thought you were a man! Oh, those were the days! Thought we had it made staying home and making money refunding.We even had refund swap meets and conventions.And that was my first introduction to dumpster diving. And wasn't it fun at the checkout when you handed them $10 for 3 carts full of groceries and all the clerks were dumbfounded?
posted on May 20, 2001 09:02:33 AM
deco100,
Oh yes the fond memories of dumpster diving. Oil cans and beer boxes were a treasure trove.
Once a month my girl friend and I took a road trip to the Twin Cities, collecting trash and refund forms, and useing our clipped coupons at the stores that TRIPLED them..."NO LIMIT". I had a big ole station wagon and I kid you not we literally FILLED it up with groceries. My oh my....to be able to return to those days.
Yup...DOLLARS DAILY(stacks of them)....those were the best of times!
posted on May 20, 2001 03:03:38 PM
I too am a female and I used to do some serious refunding. The military base where we were stationed once had a coupon contest. I redeemed almost a $1000 in free product coupons and spent around $25.00. I of course won the contest and the trip to Florida. Really cool. Once I moved up to Alaska refunding became more difficult. I only this year started selling on Ebay and I'm hooked. Nice to see I have so much in commen with many of you.
posted on May 20, 2001 03:47:17 PM
I, too, am a refunder. I still coupon, but our store "only" doubles to 99¢ now, we used to have one that tripled to 49¢ UNLIMITED!
I found that old refund premiums do very well on ebay. I hate I used to give so much as gifts, but I didn't have money to buy stuff, and the kids in the family didn't understand how someone "had the money" to go to college but not buy Christmas gifts!
posted on May 20, 2001 03:52:46 PM
Well, I not Female, but I've done the double coupon thing alot. I had a devil of a time making the ex understand why when you have a $1.00 off a box of Tide, you pick up the SMALLEST box they have in the store. When we got five boxes free one day, and about $3.00 back to boot, it finaly made sense to her.
posted on May 20, 2001 04:55:56 PM
Female Here! Yeah, you would think it's Dave huh? It's the hubs ID, He was a buyer on Ebay looooooong ago. I inherited it when I started selling on Ebay, and with all of the feedback, I don't want to give it up. When I started, I didn't know I could get my own ID, so just used his. Funny tho, I've only had a few buyers surprised that I was not "Dave". LOL! Sue
posted on May 21, 2001 01:06:09 PM
Refunding is where you combine sales, coupons, and then same UPCs to send in for rebates. I'm sure you sent cereal box tops away for toys when you were little -- its like that except some companies give some great things like cash, really neat gifts, etc.
I have a link on my homepage to a great refunding site -- I prefer one magazine much over another one. (and sweepstaking -- I'm into that too.) My site is kind of lame, but feel free to check it out. It needs a focus, right now, its mainly about me and my interests.
http://www.angelfire.com/wv/jenndiggy/index.html
I used to saved all my cash refunds one summer so I could afford a dorm deposit in college. (I had a total financial aid package, but without refunding, there is no way I could have come up with the extra $100 I needed to live in the dorm.)
I've done really well on some premiums on ebay. I once sold a pair of boxer shorts I got free with 2 hot dog UPS for $10. That's how I started selling on ebay -- I decided it was time to clean out my piles of junk from refunding and sweepstaking. Things like Kool-Aid match box cars, Barbies, Cornflake watches, etc. etc.
