eBay for Charity

16 December 2005

The famous eBay auction site can now be used to raise money for charities. Using eBay for charity sellers can nominate some or all of the final sale price to give to charity. This was first launched with the BBC Children in need appeal, but can now be used for any charity.

The auction range from normal items with a percentage of the money going to the charity, to special items purely to raise money for charity.
As well as being included in the normal listings a search can be performed on eBay for Charity auctions only.

All eBay for Charity Listing

Some of the special auctions include a whole section provided by Virgin Atlantic, including having a brand new virgin atlantic airbus named after you.

A even more unusual auction is a Fully Decorated Completely Invisible Christmas Tree.

Many more are signed clothing (such as football shirts), books and collectables.

Some are just regular auctions of normal items where the seller has decided to give the money to charity. I have one such auction at the moment which is:

IBM Thinkpad Laptop Memory 128MB PC100 144pin SODIMM

This is just some laptop memory I now have available as the result of an upgrade. Rather than just sell it and keep the money myself I have decided to give the money to: The National Deaf Children's Society. I could have sold the item and kept the money myself, but this way I give the money direct to charity, which may be a bit more than the auction would have originally sold for.

To take part the charity has to be listed in Mission Fish, who are handling the transfer of money to appropriate charities. The number of charities listed is not that great, and it is noticeable that a number of the larger charities are missing, but this will probably change in the future. It also means that some of these smaller charities are going to get some extra money, that may have otherwise gone to a national charity.

Next time you sell something on eBay, consider giving some or all of the money to your chosen charity.