eBay tests new program to sell your items to Goodwill

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

Have a used item you don't think will sell on eBay? A new program could still fill your pockets with half the proceeds.

Recently launched on a test basis, "Sell it Forward" lets you send your used items to eBay in a free postage-paid bag. From there, the auction site hands them over to the San Francisco Bay Area branch of Goodwill Industries. If Goodwill can unload the items within 14 days, you score a 50 cut of the sales price, which is sent to your PayPal account. If not, you get a receipt for a donation that you can use for tax purposes.

The program has a few caveats, according to the Sell it Forward FAQ page.

eBay seems most interested in "fashion items," such as clothes, shoes, and handbags. Brand name products are most likely to sell, at long as they're in new, like-new, or good condition. Items that are unusuable and can't be resold are instead donated directly. But other types of items qualify as well.

eBay provides a list of items that are restricted or prohibited, while Goodwill describes the items that it can't accept.

For now, Sell it Forward is open only to people in the San Francisco, S... [Read more]