Two Left (and Two Right) Feet

For the past couple of months, I've been selling some of my excess stuff on eBay. Most of it is clothing and shoes, with a couple of messenger-type bags and a couple of watches that I no longer wear. There are some things I've bought on eBay that didn't quite work out for one reason or other, and the best thing to do is to turn it over again to someone else. Often I make only a few bucks on each auction, but after a dozen or so sales it accumulates to a respectable amount of money.

Due to the amount of time involved in setting up an auction--taking decent pictures, writing a good description, posting the information, answering questions, packing the items and shipping them to the winning bidders--I tend to post only one or two auctions at a time on a sort of rolling schedule, one new auction every couple of days or so, so that I am not completely overwhelmed by the process.

Last week I sold a pair of adidas sneakers to a guy out in California. To maintain my ranking as a trustworthy seller, I make the effort to ship the winning bidder's item the next day. It's easy enough for me to stop at the Milk Street post office, which closes at 6, on my way home from work (I used to stop in the Prudential Center, but they cut back their hours and now close too early). I usually pack the item and get it ready the night before, but for some reason this time I didn't, so in the morning I had to scramble to find a shoebox-sized box and some packing material. (Given the amount of stuff I buy, I have amassed a substantial stash of boxes and packing supplies in the basement that comes in handy for this.)

Yesterday I got an email from the buyer: I sent him the wrong sneakers. I had two pairs of adidas sitting next to each other in their boxes, and I posted the auction for the second pair a couple of days before the first auction ended. In doing so I mixed up the boxes, and because I was in a hurry I didn't bother to look at the shoebox before enclosing it in the outer box.

Sending him the correct pair is the easy part. I had a few people watching the other auction, but no bids yet. Thinking it would take too much time for him to send the shoes back to me, I asked him if he would be willing to send the "wrong" shoes to the winning bidder if I reimbursed him for the postage. He replied that he could do that, but then he offered to buy the other pair. Under the circumstances it was the easiest solution, and even though I'm probably not making any money on this situation, I guess I'm lucky he liked those other shoes too.