‘There must be more to life than having everything.’ ~Maurice Sendak

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Baker of Man Vs. Debt. Follow him on Twitter here.

There are dozens upon dozens of guides to eBay on the internet. There a thousands of tips and tricks scattered across hundreds of websites. I know, because I’ve read 90% of them over the last few years.

You see, back in 2008, my wife and I hatched a crazy plan. We were burnt out and beaten from our recent addiction to consumerism and the compounding stress of our consumer debt. We were tired of the constant pressure to work jobs we weren’t passionate about to pay for stuff that didn’t bring us lasting value or joy.

So we sold it. We sold everything. If it didn’t get sold, it was donated or thrown out. Over the course of the next year, we purged all of our possessions, paid off $18,000 in debt, and jumped on a plane for Australia with our 1-year-old daughter. We each took one backpack and whatever we could fit inside of it.

In the massive purge of our excess stuff, eBay was invaluable. I venture we sold at least 70% of all our possessions on the website. At first, we flew by the seat of our pants, but over time we taught ourselves the ins and outs of the eBay process. We slowly figured out how to maximize the money we received, while minimizing the amount of time we spent doing it.

We aren’t professional eBay sellers, but Courtney and I learned a lot through our year of trial and error … through our research and reading. In the spirit our adopted minimalist lifestyle, I want to share what we believe is the least you need to know to get started listing your excess stuff on eBay.
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