I Am an Ebay Goblin (and You Should Be, Too!)

     Ebay is an underrated treasure trove of cheap journal supplies. Every now and then I find myself as I eat my bowl of cereal scrolling through the listings of the "journal destash" (or "scrapbook destash") search tag on the wonderful world of Ebay. I used to sort by price lowest to highest, but now I prefer to search by newest listing, hoping to find a good deal before someone else snatches it away from me. It can be a difficult battle, as listings are constantly going up, some being way more reasonable than others. Some are obvious attempts to make money off of an item they bought for half of that. The same is true for Depop, which I mostly avoid nowadays due to Aliexpress/Temu resellers flocking to in droves to see who can make the next penny off of unsuspecting users. Every now and then there's a deal worth buying, but in the age of AI and Temu, that's become more and more rare on most all reselling platforms. I do have a $60 destash lot from someone who's quitting the hobby permanently in my cart though...debating if it's worth it over and over. Alas, I am indecisive, and I'm not sure how much I need more anyhow.

    A month ago, I ordered a set of stamps off Ebay for $20, and $5 or so shipping. It had seventeen stamps, some I recognized as being from Michael's ($5 per set minimum). To this day, I'm still glad I bought the lot, which likely had a much higher value in truth. Now, in order to get good value deals, you need to order not from the big wigs with 10k or more reviews, but users who seem more like your weird neighbor Steve who just wants to get rid of his unused T-shirts he was gifted last Christmas. The larger ones often flip items for profit that they bought at a much lower rate. This has always been prevalent, but it's even more so nowadays than it used to be. Additionally, always go for users with ratings of 98% or higher. Any less and it tends to be sketchy.

    Mystery bags and scoops priced at only $5 look enticing at first glance, but they're really just a scam. They're typically items you'd be better off buying directly from the source (usually AliExpress or Temu) for a few cents each. Avoid anything tagged as a mystery scoop, especially if the description doesn't state how much is inside the package- they'll often only give you two sticker sheets and a few flakes to avoid giving you your money's worth. Additionally, mystery scoops are against Ebay, Depop, and Etsy's policies. I actually don't know of any site I've seen them on where they aren't actively breaking the rules for being effectively gambling wrapped in a pretty pink bow. If you see these listings, honestly, I'd just report them. Trying to trick people into a gambling scam where the consumer never wins is sketchy and immoral behavior. I may open a cheap bag one day for the blog to try and break down the scam of it all but I'm unsure. I stopped falling for those once I hit eighteen years old.