I am very excellent at booking holidays. I’m great at researching where’s good to go, finding the best (um, cheapest) flights, locking in accommodation and fantasising about the fabulous time I’m soon going to have.
 
I’m not so hot at saving up the money needed to have said good time. Which is problematic when you’re 10 days away from a trip to Bali and your bank account is only in double digits. True story.

After a reliable source tells me you can live like a queen in Bali with just $500, I decide that my only option is to sell everything I can and see if I can rustle up enough money for my holiday.

Goal: $500. Deadline: Ten days.

NINE DAYS TO GO: DECIDE WHAT TO SELL AND WHERE

I collect 50-odd items of clothing to sell via an old-fashioned garage sale and eBay. In preparation for the online portion, I speak to eBay spokeswoman Jenny Thomas about maximising my success.

My first question: when should I start selling? “The busiest time on the site is Sunday evening, so make sure your sale finishes then. I also recommend starting it on a Sunday evening and running it for seven days – that way, you get two weekends’ worth of traffic to your listing.”

I line everything up as suggested with an eBay auction starting Sunday at 8.30pm, ending the same time the following Sunday. The garage sale will take place on the last bidding day, so it fits perfectly.

Next, Thomas gives me tips for listing my items on eBay and attracting customers. “Firstly, take lots of photos. People love to see every detail, especially if the item has been worn. Secondly, try to write as much information about the product as possible, so that buyers understand exactly what they’re getting.”

THREE DAYS TO GO: WAITING AND WISHING

After selecting a manageable 35 items to sell, I apply more of Thomas’ advice when I post most of them on eBay at really low prices. “It’s free to list things at 99c now, so there’s no risk for you,” she tells me.

“Starting low gets people excited and engaged in auctions. It’s possible your item will go for less than you want, but we’ve found that people who list lower get more bids than those who start at, say, $50.” Dutifully doing as I am told, I spend quite a long time taking photos, writing details down and posting 27 of my things at really low price points – 99c, $5, $10 or $15.

After four days of not much bidding action at all, I’m starting to freak that nothing is going to sell. Realising that having zero dollars will make for one lousy holiday, I quickly go through and drop the price of some expensive items, and then try to come to terms with the fact that I now just have to wait.

I also pray that the garage sale will come through with the goods – I saved eight of my pricier items for it and I won’t be budging on price.

LAST DAY: THE RESULTS

The week of waiting has been long and torturous ... show me the money, eBay! But the wait was eventually worth it – after obsessively checking the status of my items for seven days, the sale has finally ended. And … success! Nineteen items sold on eBay and five at the garage sale – 24 items in total, bringing in a very satisfying $413.99.

As is evident in my case, all the exciting action starts in the very late stages of an eBay sale. Within the last two hours, I received multiple bids and the amount I was making increased rapidly as I watched. With the money I’ve made, I mightn’t be living like a queen, but I can certainly handle downgrading to princess status for my week in Bali.

It’s not bad, considering I’d been thinking about ditching all my old stuff in the local St. Vinnies bin. While it was hard to see some expensive, good quality things go for under $10 (lucky eBayers!), and it was fairly time consuming, there’s no doubt my holiday has improved by about 413.99 per cent, thanks to my quick-cash bonanza.