Isnt it illegal to sell girlscout cookies on e-bay? A lady said she bought 26 boxes from her granddaughter and is trying to sell them when the order comes in?
Isnt this being sneaky? I mean its not the girlscout directly selling them. And, who knows if it really is a grandmother selling them either.I hate when people dont follow the rules for stuff like this.

By Kaye on Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 07:02 pm:

Yes it is illegal. Matter of fact, I will be looking into it and reporting it to council They do this for the girls own safety!

By Crystal915 on Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 07:17 pm:

I wouldn't WANT to buy GS cookies online. Honestly, if you are going to pay that much for cookies, you want to see the GS, and know that it's going to them. I was a GS for 8 years, and froze my butt off every January to sell, it's part of the tradition!!

By Dawnk777 on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 12:43 am:

I would think it was illegal, too! Girl Scout Cookie sales start here on Thursday! Sarah usually does pretty well, between Dh's and my places of employment and at church.

The cookie money is going to each girl's account to go towards a trip next summer. This might be Sarah's last year selling cookies! I don't know if it pays for the girls to sell cookies next year, when they are seniors in high school.

2 years ago, I was the cookie mom! Seems like you can't go through Girl Scouts from kindergarten until now, without being the cookie mom at least once!

By Conni on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 08:14 am:

I just ordered 7 boxes from the neighbor girl. lol I cant believe someone is going to sell tham on ebay. Are you sure she wasnt joking? lol Thats pretty sad.

By Kaye on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 09:09 am:

There are actually several listings. Some are leftovers from last year. One is a grandmother who bought a bunch and is selling them off. One is from a girl (troop number listed). All in all pretty sad. If council catches you selling illegally (and they have massive training to explain how and where you can sell), they actually will punish the whole troop and that whole troop cannot sell. The reason they have these laws is for girl safety and fairness to other scouts. You actually are not allowed to sell outside your own council (even if you happen to live in a different council).

Anyway, I could go on, but won't. I have been the cookie mom for 6 years now and this is a pet peeve of mine.

By Kate on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 09:37 am:

If it's illegal then it's wrong. However, I personally don't see the problem. The grandmother has to pay the GS no matter what. So GS make their money fair and square. What the grandmother chooses to do with the cookies she bought shouldn't matter. Would *I* buy food off ebay? No, never. Would I attempt to sell food on ebay? Nope. But I just don't see how this hurts the income of GS.

BTW, I believe a box is $3.50...doesn't only like fifty cents go to GS?? I know it's an amount that's too small, and makes me not want to buy cookies. They're very expensive and such a small profit goes to the scouts. Correct me if I'm wrong, please.

By Kaye on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 09:50 am:

The price of cookies varies from council to council, some are still at 3 dollars, most are at 3.50 and some are at 4. This variance is part of why no net sales are allowed, it is hard for the girls to sell at 4 dollars when you can log on and buy at 3 dollars a box.

As far as break down of money.

Of the 3.50, it goes something like this...

About 1/3 goes to the baker for the actual cookies (about a buck a box). The troop gets 53-63 cents based on volume and age (they can opt out of the little prizes and get cash). The service unit get 3 cents per box.

The rest of that money stays 100% in your local area council. It goes to improving camps, buying equipment, silly little prizes, training for leaders, and programing for girls.

I didn't used to think it was very fair that we only got 50 cents to blow on a party or a trip. But the reality is, when I take my girls camping, I only pay 25 dollars for the weekend, all we need to take is food and sleeping bags. My girl can go horseback riding for 2 dollars a girl, we can do archery, canoeing etc. All of this stuff is providing from cookie sales.

By Insaneusmcwife on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 10:58 am:

The problem is that its illegal. It states it on the GS Website and whos to say that its really a grandmother selling the cookies? I could have a dd old enough to sell them and put them on ebay with some similar grandmother story and no one would know the difference. If grandma wants to get rid of the cookies she can give them to chairity. We recieved lots of cookies last year while dh was in Iraq from the girl scouts that people donated to the unit. If its for the sales then grandma should take the grandaughter around to all her friends to have them buy a box. If grandma didn't want to spend the money than she shouldn't have bought them. Bottom line it is illegal!

By Tayjar on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 11:30 am:

I am a Girl Scout leader as well as a Girl Scout service unit manager. Let me be very clear. It is against all Girl Scout rules to sell on the internet. Not only is it unfair to the girls who are going house to house, it is unsafe for the girls who sell on the internet. Lots of weirdos lurk in cyberspace. As well as the ebay thing, how do you know it's not some child or parent lying just to take the easy way out for selling? You don't.

If you can't play by the rules, don't enter the game. I tell the parents they aren't teaching their children anything by cheating or bending the rules so their child can be the top sellers.

Can you tell this is a hot button for me? In my troop and SU, if we find out a girl sold cookies using methods against the rules, her sales are null and void and she gets no recoginiton for her efforts. In essence, the girls are responsible for making sure they and their parents go by the rules. And, believe me, we always find out who cheats. They only do it once. And, sadly, it's always because of the parents.

By Jewlz on Monday, January 9, 2006 - 11:11 pm:

http://search.ebay.com/girl-scout-cookies_W0QQfromZR8QQfsooZ2QQfsopZ3QQfstypeZ1QQssPageNameZWLRS


thats a page that has several 2005 and 2006 cookies up for sale in ebay... hope someone duz something a bout it ... this was posted at 810 pm calif time ....

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 12:01 pm:

Girl Scout Stuff on Ebay

They're selling the t-shirts and other prizes, besides cookies????? That just doesn't seem right! With all the work that is involved with selling, picking up, and delivering Girl Scout cookies, you shouldn't be able to just buy the prizes on EBAY! Now, I'm mad!

By Emily7 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 12:12 pm:

Did you read some of the comments...they get rude.
I do have a question though, what is the difference between selling on ebay & sitting outside WalMart & selling them? Are they just selling the leftovers at Walmart or are they ordering extra to boost their sales?
Don't get me wrong I don't thin selling on ebay is right. When I was in school my parents wouldn't even take our stuff to work & sell it because it was our responsibility.

By Tayjar on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 01:20 pm:

At Wal-Mart, there is an adult present with the girls who can monitor the sales. In our council, you have to get council permission to set up a cookie shop outside of a business.

The entire point of not selling on the Internet is to protect the safety of the girls. Not all girls have parents who are going to actively watch their internet usage. It's a big liability issue if they allow it. Does that make sense?

Personally, I see it as a moral issue. By breaking the rule, the parents are telling their kids it's ok to break that rule because I don't agree with it.

By Yjja123 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 01:34 pm:

I am just curious, how is it safer to sell door to door, as opposed to on the internet? I would never allow my kids to sell anything by going door to door. I hate pressuring coworkers to buy anything. The internet seems like a logical way to sell. The people who want the cookies can just order them. If not ebay, why not a website for each group? I am just trying to understand the safety issue.

By Jackie on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 02:20 pm:

I dont allow my daughter to go door to door. We go to the houses where we actually know people and are friendly with them. Also I go with my daughter when she goes out to do this.The people who we are friends with are more then happy to help my kids who are both in Scouts.Basically its really nothing more then a donation to an organization thats been around for a long time.

By Lorebunde on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 03:40 pm:

I wouldn't buy food off ebay either. Plus pay shipping for cookies, sounds silly.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 03:43 pm:

Our troops have to order full cases of cookies, so there are always cookies leftover. It seems we usually end up selling them somehow. Sarah's troop has never done a cookie booth.

I think troops who plan to do a cookie booth, do order extra cookies besides the extras they are stuck with.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 03:45 pm:

Sarah is 16 and I still go with her, when we go around the neighborhood. We also ask people at church, so pretty much only people we know.

By Tayjar on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:09 pm:

Girls are not to go door to door unless there is an adult with them. That doesn't mean high school sibling either. Responsible adult. And, if the leaders follow the rules, they will dedicate one meeting to how to sell the cookies safely. I stress to my parents that even though we live in a small town and everyone knows each other, they still must go with their children to sell if they go door to door.

Why not a website? While all of the money goes to the troop, the girls get prizes and cookie dough (kinda like bonus bucks) that they can use for summer camps. My daughter goes to 2 daycamps and will be going to one overnight camp this summer. She can use her cookie dough to offset the cost.

My troop runs it like a business. They market the cookies, they have sales goals, and they decide what they are going to spend our cookie money on. This year we are chartering a bus and going to the Wisconsin Dells to Kalahari for a weekend. These are 3rd and 4th grade girls. By going by the rules, we still sell about 3 - 4 thousand boxes of cookies in my troop.

By Karen~moderator on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:20 pm:

We buy from the girls in our neighborhood - their parents always go with them door to door, and most of our neighbors are happy to support the Girl Scouts and buy cookies from them.

Also, when my DH was a store manager for Party City, he allowed different troops to have a cookie sale every year in front of his store.

By Jackie on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:31 pm:

Our brownie troop did have one full meeting on how to sell cookies safetly. I did learn something, when they are at a booth, they are NOT ALLOWED to say "Would you like to buy girlscout cookies".. I had no idea. In the past Ive seen the booths outside Walmart and the the girls always said it. But, the troop leader said they are not suppose too.

By Kaye on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:39 pm:

Jackie, I had no idea they weren't allowed to say that. In general, we are trained to not ambush people, but if someone makes eye contact you should ask. Of course I train my girls to ask "how many boxes of cookies would you like to day?" with a big cheesy grin. When they are told no thanks, my girls are also trained to say "have a great day, or something like that, lots of people have already bought and my girls say thanks for supporting scouts.

Tayjar, I am impressed with your sales numbers!

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 04:55 pm:

Sarah used to have about 21 girls in her troop. This was back in elementary school. One year, they all sold just over 2000 boxes.

Now, they are down to about six girls that have stuck with it, this long. 2 years ago, they sold about 650 boxes.

By Tayjar on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 05:16 pm:

Kaye - my girls are awesome. They could sell a cookie to Mr. Keebler himself. We do have 17 girls in the troop so it's not that hard to get reach those numbers. We have one girl who sells almost 1,000 on her own.

By Dawnk777 on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - 09:09 pm:

Wow. I think the most Sarah has ever sold, was about 140. One of her troopmates, usually sold about 300-some.