Selling on EBAY for KIVA

[Guest]

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[KivanSteven]

Someone asked me recently if a Kiva type of charity account can be established on Ebay.  Since ebay is so popular I thought it was worth checking out--Im in the process of doing that...but first I wanted to guage whether anyone would even be willing to sell on occasion for Kiva.  I believe profits would fund Kiva.org....Would you be more likely to sell for Kiva if a Kivafriends account could be linked with ebay and used to fund loans as a community?  Maybe Henry looked into this already being that he helps run the Igive account for Kivafriends.

[Henry]

No, I haven't ebay'd in years, (or checked on this) when they improved their site about 9 years ago, it got way to complicated for me.  But our members who purchase on Ebay do get some credited funds.  I bet sellers will too, if you end up setting up an account, see if you can connect the dots! 

[KivanSteven]

Ok guys checked into this and the staff at Kiva have already signed Kiva.org up as a non profit on Ebay...thats great...Ebay uses a site called missionfish.org for all charity work.  Here is the link for all ebay items currently being auctioned off to benefit Kiva...There isnt much really

http://www.missionfish.org/NPMMF/nphomepage.jsp?NP_ID=17025

But the listings on mission fish are very easy to follow, sort, and search through.  I think there is potential here.  Charity auctions tend to receive more views and sell for more than the same auction that is not listed as a charity auction.  Also this not only helps bring money in for Kiva, but it also exposes the organization and its cause and purpose to the greater public, easily thousands of people with just a handful of auctions.  Links to Kiva and I believe a description of the organization is also included in the auction, or at least a link to that info, etc....It could be a really good thing for Kiva...just like Igive if more people took advantage of that...including myself...but with ebay the potential is even greater because the % is not limited.

The best part is that if you have items to sell you dont have to donate the entire amount which might encourage others who dont want to get rid of items that might rake in some cash that they need.  At the same time ebay is being quite generous, much like paypal, in that whatever % of your sale that you donate is the same % that they deduct from your selling AND insertion fees.  So if you sell something and donate 100% of the proceeds to lets say, KIVA, then 100% of your selling fees are deducted from your ebay invoice as well (be patient they warn, it doesnt show until the next invoice I guess).  But this way anyone selling strictly for Kiva, does not have to incur any fees, and thats a huge plus.  There are a few exceptions but they wouldnt apply to most auctions, such as placing reserve prices--that fee is not refundable.

Anyways, I still want to discern if there are any, even a few Kivafriends who would enjoy and be willing to sell on ebay at some point, at any point, once or twice here or there...just want people to know its there and the link provided above can be used at any time to access current auctions to benefit Kiva on ebay.  I would suggest taking a sec just to add it to your favorites if possible.