How our eBay Shop works

Most of what you see for sale in our six Hospice Shops is donated by the public, sorting through things they no longer need at home, and taken to the nearest Hospice shop thus turning their gifts into money going towards patient care costs.

When the shop volunteer staff see an item they think might be ideal for our eBay Shop they ring the Bucks Road office and Christine Jones, will come out to have a look. If she agrees, she will take it back to the eBay studio. This is the story of one such object - a very pretty water jug, shown here on the left of the photo, seen in the Bucks Road Shop window.

Examination

Christine has taken the water jug out of the shop window and gives it a preliminary once over for quality and looks for any damage which may affect the value.

If she decides the jug is ideal for eBay, she will make a note of which Hospice shop it came from so that the sale price is credited to that Shop's sales figures. In this way, our 200 plus Shop Volunteers can participate in the eBay Shop success, encouraging the identifying of potential items for eBay sale and knowing their efforts will be reflected in individual Shop figures.

Research

Back at the Hospice Shops eBay studio, Christine does some research on the Jug's origins and anticipated market value. She has a library covering a wide range of porcelain, china, furniture, paintings, and jewellery - books mostly donated for sale in our Hospice Shops.

This water jug was found to be Copeland Spode, part of a wash stand water jug and basin set, and made in Stoke on Trent, probably in the 1890s.

Photography

Having decided on the origins of the jug it's time for photographing. EBay will produce three separate images from one original, so the original has to be good.

The camera being used here is a digital Olympus E20 (which Hospice Shops did not have to buy) with through the lens viewing to a digital screen (you can just see the jug in the viewer), automatic focusing and all the bells and whistles which make producing a good photo much easier these days. A tripod ensures the camera remains still.

Uploading to eBay

With a photographic image doing justice to the jug, Christine is ready to upload to our Hospice eBay Shop. She logs on to our pages, enters the description and uploads the jug's photographic image.

EBay then takes over, producing three separate images from the one original; the first is a thumbnail as part of a list of Hospice eBay Shop items for sale, linked to the second - a large thumbnail plus details of current highest bid, postage cost plus more of interest to the bidder, and the third - a large view of the item for sale.

Dispatch

Goods are usually bought via a bidding process over a number of days. At the end of the bidding time we get in touch with the successful bidder and, if there is any arrangement to be made concerning shipping it will be done at that time.

Careful packing is essential to ensure the item arrives safely. Here the jug is being wrapped in the first of many layers of bubblewrap, then placed in a stout cardboard box, sealed, labelled, taken to the Post Office and on its way to the new owner.

Payment will have been via PayPal through the eBay website direct into Hospice Shops eBay account.

Hospice Shops eBay Store and the Future

In the middle of 2007 a decision was taken to concentrate more time and resources to eBay trading, yielding a turnover of £13,000. Trading in 2008 has got off to a good start to the end of March at almost £6,000, which - if that were an average it would result in an annual turnover of £24,000. But we have greater ambitions and would like to think this figure can be doubled - which would be all the easier with your help!

If you have china, porcelain, jewellery, collectibles from yesteryear put away in drawer please think about us - your gift will be sold for the maximum available making those extra few £pounds towards patient care at Hospice Isle of Man. If you can help contact us via this website or by phone (01624) 61 50 55. We look forward to hearing from you.

There is an eBay News page

For information on recent successful sales in our eBay Shop, follow this link.