Is This Killing My Customers Selling on eBay?

In response to one of the videos I did about starting a clothing business on eBay, I received a comment about a tip I suggested. Someone got a little worked up over my suggesting that you cut a piece from a dryer sheet and toss it in the package with the clothing you are sending. I think they made some really good points, so I want to repeat this comment here and then give my opinion after.

The statement read, “Those laundry sheets are poison chemical. If you sent that ish to my house I’d leave a negative review quicker than you could cry for mommy. Nothing personal, but geez, it’s 2018, who uses poison deliberately? Ditch the dryer sheet routine, save yourself some money, save your poor buyers’ health.”

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Chemicals?
This person was definitely pretty agitated, so let me touch on this. This person isn’t very happy about the dryer sheets getting thrown in, and I’m not sure if they’re poisonous or not. If I had to make a guess, I would probably say yes, they probably are poisonous to an extent. A lot of these things have chemicals—even soda, drinks, different juices, and food. You could say that everything’s poison and there are chemicals all over everything. So I definitely wouldn’t doubt it.

What I have been doing—and I don’t do it every single time—is just rip a little piece off the dryer sheet when I fold up my clothing item and put it in a poly bag when I ship it. The reason I’ve done this in the past is to make the clothing item smell good. Sometimes if you’re sourcing from thrift stores and garage sales, they have a musty smell. So the piece of dryer sheet freshens it up and makes it smell good.

I know a lot of other sellers do it as well. And in all the times I’ve done this, I’ve never had a problem with it. However, some people have allergies or are sensitive to certain chemicals, so this practice could get you into trouble in that way. I’ve never had anybody complain or become upset, but I could see how that could happen.

Is It Really Harmful?
My thought is that most people who buy a clothing item on eBay is going to wash it anyway; it’s not as though they’re going to take it out of the bag and throw it on themselves. So I don’t think it’s a really big deal. I think it’s something nice—they open up the bag and it’s just a nice, light, refreshing smell. There are tons of chemicals and different things out there in this world, and you can’t avoid it all.

Sometimes sellers worry about these little things and get so caught up in these tiny details that they don’t take action. And you know what? What’s really the worst thing that’s going to happen? You might get somebody who complains. If I was to get a negative feedback, I would stop doing it, but I’ve never had any issues.

So I’m still going to continue doing it. I don’t do it all the time—only if necessary. I think it’s still something nice to do. You don’t have to overpower it with a whole dryer sheet. Am I wrong for doing that? I’m open to hearing your suggestions.