Why I've ventured into eBay

One of my (many) favourite parts of the wonderful Buffy the Vampire Slayer is when they need a mcguffin called an Urn of Osiris. One is duly obtained and when someone asks, amazed that this rare item has been so quickly found, the answer is something to the effect of 'Oh, I got it on eBay.'

I have a mixed relationship with selling books on eBay. I used to regularly sell my Organizing a Murder ebook of party games that way, selling at least a copy a week, which worked wonderfully well as there was nothing to post (and I got really happy feedback). Eventually eBay stopped me from selling it because they said I didn't have the rights to do so. Despite many attempts to point out that, as the author, I had every right, I never got anywhere - any attempt to get an non-robotic response out of the supposedly human customer service team at eBay is a nightmare. I think they have now banned selling e-products.

I've never really bothered selling physical books this way, but I thought as an experiment I would try selling a signed copy of Dice World with a personalised dedication. It's on this week - you can take a look here - and at the time of writing it could be yours for £1.04 (UK only, I'm afraid). I've no idea what will come of it, but I think in the writing business you have to be constantly experimenting with different ways of being in contact with the audience, and I hope this will be an effective one. We shall see! I will update the post with the outcome after the event.

* UPDATED 2 August *

The auction has now finished - and the answer based on this very small experiment is 'Probably not worth it.' The book received 8 bids and sold for £4.10, where I would normally sell them at a speaking event for £8. (To put it into context, I have to pay £4.50 to buy them from the publisher.) So not something I'll try again for the moment - but worth a try.

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