There is no mystery as to why Spanish people do not like or want second hand items, its all to do with bringing bad luck in to the house.

As for buying off Ebay.es the internet and indeed a postal or courier system that actually delivers and or using a credit card to purchase over the net instead of cash is in its infancy compared to say UK and USA.

No. Ebay.es isnt too good but you can still live in spain and sell on .com or co.uk. The postage will just be a bit higher when sending to UK for instance.

And it really is surprising what people buy. Like they say "one mans junk is another mans treasure."

I am absolutely addicted to ebay.

agreed.

and i really can see an opportunity here for when we finally arrive in Spain.

If the Spaniards dont want it then you can bet someone else, somewhere else would buy it. We've made thousands over the years (yes, declared to HMRC too) with selling on ebay.co.uk.

cheers for the ideas everyone.

AMANDA! you keep posting at the same time as me. blimey i'm gonna have to keep my eye on you! (ill get back to the house and find my computer on ebay!)

seriously, watch this lady!

you could be drinking a cup of tea, turn your back, and then find out 5 mins later she has sold the milk on ebay!

Sorry to have to be the one that says that Spanish postal charges are very high and that unless selling small light items many have found it impossible to trade on ebay from Spain.

Many traders will not send stuff to Spain as it gets stolen.

nope never had that problem ever. The only places we ship to where anything has gone missing has been france and Italy, all the others have been fine. Dont worry, Amanda is the EBAY QUEEN, we will do fine.

I have never had a problem selling to the spanish.

Yes, weights of packages will have to be watched but i dont see a problem other than that. We have a feedback of nearly 5000 on one account and about 2000 on another. This gives lots of credibility even though we will be in Spain.

Good luck in your venture, and (as I suspect you've already found) don't necessarily believe all you hear from other sources. Folk here have mentioned you don't have much competition from second hand shops the way we do in the UK with the charity shops. However in most big towns and cities in Spain you can find incredibly cheap products at the Chinese shops - often called todo a cien or Bazar 100. These will be your big competitors I suspect (or possibly a supply option - find out how they import their stuff)

The Chinese shops are cheap... and generally nasty too... I buy a few bits and bobs but most stuff breaks within a short time. My friend bought a weighing scale for 8 euros that was 10 kilos out depending on how you stood on it... good for self-confidence mind...

Well exactly. I think people who take a risk on buying something cheap will try the Chinese shops; if they are prepared to pay for what they believe will be better quality, then they go to El Corte Ingles or a fashion shop or the local stationery shop (depends obviously on what they are buying)

I have never found ebay much use when selling items, mind I think everyman and his dog seems to sell something or other.

Being a craft retailer I learned the hard way when it comes to ebay, you can find most major surpliers selling to the public under the guise of joe public and selling at less than we pay for it so, it is uneconomical to do so and very disheartening.

Have had a good sort out prior to moving and putting stuff out for the junk men and people are saying sell it on ebay, if I would not buy it I would not expect others to be interested (example - oh push bike original truimph from the 1960's) to me it looks like junk, dates back to junk and is more than likely is junk and to try and sell it would be a waste.

I had a similar experience with a time waster when trying to give away some building materials.

I have 90+ paving slabs and 19 preformed steps. Rather that advertising, I put out the word they were free to uplift. First guy begged to me to keep them until he could pick them up. I told everyone else they were "sold". He came and collected 12, I will come back tomorrow for the rest - no show. I will come Wednesday @ 11.ooam. We came home to meet him and found a message, he had been and gone @ 10.15.

I think I shall leave them outside my gate for the first Morrocan who passes by

In Barcelona we just left our old funiture outside the portal of the building. It attracted quite a crowd and within an hour it was all gone, a whole flat's worth! (a friend had just bought a fully furnished flat full of old furniture)

It was good to know other people could put it to good use.

I think the difference in attitude to second hand things has nothing to do with bad luck or witchcraft or the sense of second hand things being dirty or anything. It is more down to that Spanish people are more likely to have extended families. So, if you dont want something, you ask around in your family, if they dont want it, you throw it away.

Saying that, segundamano.com has been a phenomonum over the past year or two. Although I always think the prices on there are way too high

We had a load of stuff given to us by a new villa owner that he didn`t want when he moved in.
We took it to a car boot for 4 weeks running and sold all of it for a couple of thousand €'s.
Mainly to Spaniards, so they do buy S/H stuff.

Half decent stuff moves from our bins within 15 mins. lol

do you have anything positive to say about anything or anyone?

i think also you have totally misunderstood ebay. Ebay has over 10,000 categories each different and each containing sometimes hundreds of thousands of items.

If i find, lets say, and old toy car, for a euro, depends on what it is, but i can get 50 for it. Not bad for 5 misn work?

and bikes?

er.......old bikes fetch money too.

remember the raleigh chopper???

if you have a 1970s one in good condition, you will get 500 euros for it no problem.

....i'll just sit and wait for you to say something negative about that too.