You're doing fine :)

Hi, MaaMaw - just like for all things, eBay's a whole new learning curve .... you're making sales and learning as you do it!

> I don't understand what a proxy bid is.

When you place a bid on eBay, you can ask eBay (when you're making your bid there's an additional box on their form) to bid on your behalf up to the maximum you want to pay - that's proxy bidding. It does mean when you're buying something that eBay can spend your money quite quickly; I look on it as "Flushing out the opposition" - because it lets me know if the person I'm bidding against is really keen; if they've outbid me, then it's my move next to determine how much I want the product and how much more I'm prepared to spend.

Have you come across "Sniping" - that's when someone uses some software to place bids on their behalf just seconds before the auction is due to end. ... there are some auction sites which ban sniping, but, as far as I know, it still does exist. That means that you don't have to be at your 'puter as the auction ends; it also means that other bidders don't know you're interested in the item and don't drive the price up too much.

We've been caught out by the cost of postage; from the UK to send heavy parcels internationally costs about as much as the goods themselves. We have found, though, that people are prepared to pay if it's something which isn't readily available in their vicinity. For instance, we sell quite a bit of Scottish oatmeal soap to Americans; the soap costs them £2.95 and the postage is currently £2.25. .... that just covers the cost of postage - and every now and again I have to revise it because the postal rates go up. We don't make any money on the postage - and don't use the handling charge but may change policy on this if we ever got so busy that we had to employ someone to do the packing etc.