This post was originally published on February 8, 2008. I wrote it out of frustration; I had had no problems reselling my two older children’s secondhand cloth diapers, but was experiencing great difficulties finding a place to sell my baby’s secondhand cloth diapers. I still haven’t found a satisfactory solution; although I’ve ended up giving most of them away, I lost a lot of money and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
I made the decision to cloth diaper my children when I was pregnant with my first baby: partly for crunchy granola reasons, partly for economic reasons, partly because I’m stubborn and wanted to be different from the mainstream French, and a little bit for the cute factor. Cloth diapers are better for the environment, easier on your pocketbook and not very well known in France (more on that in a minute). Plus, what’s cuter than a baby with a big ole’ cloth-diapered butt? Not much.
In almost any analysis on the cost of buying and using cloth versus disposable diapers you will find the ‘resale’ factor: the idea that you can offset your initial purchase by selling the diapers after you’ve used them with your kids. I estimate that I’ve bought 10% of my babies’ cloth diapers new, most of them were hand-me-downs, or bought second hand. After the birth of my second son, when I was convinced we were finished having children, I sold the great majority of my cloth diaper stock on Ebay and in doing so, recuperated their purchase price.
No more!
As of Summer 2007 (I’m not sure of the exact date), Ebay no longer allows the sale of used cloth diapers, considering them to be used undergarments and thus falling under the ‘mature’ rating. Auctions were cancelled and what was once a flourishing category, collapsed.
Many other sites have sprung up to fill the vacuum, but none of them get the same level of traffic as Ebay. Worse for me, most of them are in the United States. While cloth diapers remain an ‘alternative’ choice in America, in France they are considered ringard, or out-of-date and tacky. The market for them is very small and the resale value has plummeted.
So what are my options? Luckily, I managed to buy a lot of diapers in size 1 and 2 in early 2007. I got a good price on them and maybe by the time I want to sell them, another market will have opened up. Until then, I’ve posted the newborn size diapers that my daughter has already outgrown on another site and they’ve slowly been selling, one by one. I’m even considering listing a few on some US sites and bringing them with me on vacation to ship from there.
What about you? Where are you selling yours? And wanna buy some gently used, good condition newborn diapers and covers?
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{ 12 comments }
I use diaperswappers for my cloth diapering selling needs…between that and the FSOT area on MDC I do ok!
I know a lot of people sell on diaperswappers, we're actually selling our NB stash to a friend. We've decided that after two 8.5+lb babies who are in "NB" size for about 3 weeks, we can sell the NB's and buy more Med/Lg sizes and get more "bang for our buck" if you will
Is there a Craiglist in France?
<abbr>Terra Jones´s last blog post..Blast you, Little Debbie</abbr>
@Terra,
There is actually a craig's list here, and some diaper websites as well. The problem is that the market isn't as big- cloth diapers aren't as accepted here in France as they are in the US.
But it's a good idea!
Why don’t you craft them into something else and sell them (on etsy, ebay, craigslist, etc)-then they’re no longer a used undergarment. You could with little effort convert them to reusable swiffer pads-a little cutting, sewing, some velcro or elastic straps and whala-reusable swiffer pads! i’d buy them-heck I’d make them if my sewing machine worked!
Jennifer´s last blog post..The Day AFTER Christmas is just as yummy!
just a thought !give as baby gifts ,mothers can always use them as an emergency diaper. its a shame that France can’t see the health benifets of using cloth instead of the commerical made pamper type of chemicaly treated diapers. they are safer for the enviroment not to mention the babies sentisive skin. we used them for all of our four girls with hardly any diaper rash. when we used the pamper type of diapers they always had the skin rashes. also cloth diapers make very good cleaning/polishing cloths.
@Jennifer, crafting them into something else is a good idea. Except these are the really nice fitted ones, so I was reluctant to cut them up. I love flat diapers for cleaning however, and still use the ones from my first son as rags on a regular basis.
Found your site from a post on http://www.frugalbabe.com. That’s crazy about eBay, how ridiculous. Is there some way to challenge this stupid ruling? Good luck with selling your diapers. I cloth diapered my babies also – some twenty years ago. 🙂
Mrs. Accountability´s last blog post..AJ Gets A Job
In Canada here, I took mine to a consignment shop and they were sold out within a day.. i did iron and flatten them.. they were home made so they looked pretty much just as they did when I made them! not sure if you can do that there! Good luck!
Amydeanne´s last blog post..a new genre of books?
Good news! You can still buy second-hand cloth diapers on eBay Germany.
We bought Popolini Ultrafit without any problems.
We had been told they would be too big for a new born baby, so we bought some for later.
So maybe check out eBay Germany?
<abbr>Frank´s last blog post..Caitlin's First Photoshoot</abbr>
Well, if you lived in the U.S., I would say definantly check out Craigslist.com!!!
Since you are in France, though, I’d recommend checking out community.babycenter.com. There is a Cloth Diaper Swapping group on there where you can sell your diapers. It’s not the public one, but rather a private one. Request membership, you’ll be in, then post info. on your diapers along with a pic. I wouldn’t think you’d have a problem selling them on there.
Good luck! : )
Morgan´s last blog post..Ideas for Keeping a Mother’s Journal
Here’s the direct link to the Swap Group (you will have to sign up for babycenter first) :
http://community.babycenter.com/groups/a69805/cloth_diaper_swap
Morgan´s last blog post..Ideas for Keeping a Mother’s Journal
My friend owns a cloth diaper service and has a ton of diapers that can no longer be used in the service. I also tried to list on ebay and craigslist not knowing that they weren't allowed. I listed them in the auto section to be used as rags and my ad was removed. So far the only place I found was at flea markets to resell the used diapers. I will check out some of the sites recommended. But if you are interested you can check out her site at http://www.diaper-eze.com. Thanks for the info!