I’m all for re-using. I’ve talked about how re-selling fits into the whole green idea. Finite resources on the planet, more and more cheap crap all over the place, everything’s replaceable and not made to last… It’s bleak. We need to do our best however we can.

As someone with a side hustle / (very) small business, there definitely is a line that can be crossed though, and I think that an eBay seller that I recently bought from went from being business savvy and green over to the cheap side!

I ordered a little outfit for my daughter this past week off of eBay. It was shipped quickly, and I didn’t think much of it. I went to the mailbox, and saw a gray poly bag. Turns out that was an order from Zulily for my wife.

My order was underneath the poly bag…

The outfit was $12 (it was an NFL cheerleading outfit sized 3T) and had free shipping. But is this what I get for free shipping?

Using food boxes? That seems cheap.

On top of this, inside the outfit was put in a plastic bag, but it was one of those newspaper bags. I was on the fence about buying some of these (or the bread ones from Walmart) just to try them out, but man it felt flimsy. I’m going to stick with my stronger ones even if they’re a bit more expensive.

This transaction has made me a lot more cognizant of how I come across towards a buyer. I think that looking semi professional really goes a long way.

I don’t put in a packing slip, but I do pack all of my items in plastic bags (when they fit) and put on my little “thank you” sticker. You want the transaction to feel professional but personal, and I think I’ve found a happy middle ground.

But let’s get down to the question that I know all of you are asking.

Did the outfit smell like donuts?

Nope. It didn’t.

The outfit did have a musty smell, but hey, I’m getting a used outfit off of eBay. I’m going to wash it before putting it on my daughter!

I still gave the guy good feedback. Although I won’t ever ship something in a box like this, I received my undamaged item, and it was in good condition.

I’ll also keep re-using boxes like the ones I get from a Craigslist lady. I have to use a marker to cover some of the descriptions of the previous item (storage conditions and chemical names for a pharmaceutical company), but these are thick double walled boxes that I can get on the cheap! If he had sent me the item in the box that these Donut Sticks were shipped in, I wouldn’t have batted an eyelash!