If so how do you do it. I already make about 180/month selling plasma, and if i could make another 120/month or so selling on ebay that would be a pretty nice supplementary income for a college student.
So how do you do it? do you go to flea markets and buy crap then resell it?
My primary income for the last three years has come through selling on eBay. Unless you know a specialized collecting niche inside and out, or have extra money to gamble with on unknown items, you’re unlikely to succeed, especially in this very soft market. Everyone hears about the success stories like the guy who listed a wooden fishing lure for $1 that closed for $14,000, but few hear about the many other items that rack up listing fees by not selling time and time again. Keep in mind that eBay nickles and dimes you to death on fees, many buyers don’t pay for the items they purchase, and the amount of time required to list an item, communicate with a buyer, pack the item, and communicate with the high bidder consumes quite some time. Oh, and if you’re small scale, don’t plan on making that $120/mo during January, Febrauary, and July - those months are usually dead.
Potential merchandise can come from almost anywhere - flea markets, garage sales, resale shops, estate sales, and antique stores (many dealers don’t have a clue about their items).
Good luck.
I mainly go around, hit up clearance racks, and resell that on ebay.
Recently, my husband and I happened acros a CD Warehouse that was going out of business. They were selling used CDs for 10 cents (Dropped to 5 cents the second time we went back that day.) and new CDs for 20 cents (Dropped to 10.) We bought about 150 CDs, a couple of skateboarding DVDs, some cassettes and other random stuff, and only paid about $25. I think it was actually a little less than 25. Well, some of these CDs have sold for about $5 apiece on ebay, but I’ve had one go for about 20, and apparently, an Osmonds CD that I picked up to see if my grandma wanted (She didn’t) is pretty rare, and it just went for $36. I also got about $15 apiece on the DVDs, so we’ve more than made our money back on that.
A pair of shoes that I got on clearance for $5 is getting $41 right now, and we bought a King’s X shirt at a garage sale (I always buy band shirts) for 50 cents, and it went for about $45.
If I actually work on descriptions and put stuff up every Saturday, I usually make over $500/month. It’s no $14,000 for a fishing lure, but it brings in some extra cash and allows me to stay home with our daughter while doing so.
One of the tricks is to have several hundred in capital to get started. We got started a few years ago when hubby had an opportunity to buy about 200 Walkman cassette players for $2.50 each. Thing is, to get the deal, he had to take them all. Fortunately, we had the money to spend. We sold every single one of them for no less than $9.00 each (the auto-reverse ones, about 1/4 of our inventory) fetched a minimum of $15.00 each. Whatever you’re thinking of selling, look on ebay first, and see if those particular items seem to retain high resale value. Some name brands do, and some don’t. In particular, Burberry (scarves, blankets, purses, etc.) seem to retain a nice resale value, as do Longaberger baskets.
Things that are heavy, unless they’re extremely rare, won’t sell on ebay, because once the customer pays your price and shipping/handling, the price comes to almost what they would pay at a local store. The general idea on ebay, I’ve concluded, is that people are looking for BonTon quality at Wal-Mart prices.
ive sold stuff before, and i always checked the market before i sold them but i cannot find good deals and dont know where to go about finding them.
My best deal was when i got several XM radios for about $60 and resold them for $110, but thats about it.
Like many, I stumbled along for while selling on eBay. Made a little money, lost some too. Then for a piddling $3.50, I bought someones “secrets” to selling on eBay. It turned around the way I did things and I have been pretty successful since. You can find a ton of auctions for this info here. Beware, some of the items listed are actually people selling hosting for eBay ads. If you look through eBay you will see those big and long colorful ads, those are not hosted by eBay. They would take up too much server space. There are places that will host your pictures for free and rather cheaply. Unless you are trying to become one of the so called “Power Sellers”, skip the big colorful ads. And visit the eBay forums, there are many folks that will share secrets for free.
I have found some ways to save money which always increases the profit margin. At my job we throw away tons of boxes, bubble wrap and shipping foam daily. An hour a week digging in the cardboard and plastic recycling bins can keep me supplied for a month at no cost. And airplane part vendors use quality boxes for shipping expensive airplane parts. During Christmas I scored a couple hundred boxes from a friend that works at a Target, they are perfect for shipping Hot Wheels type cars. Don’t skimp on the shipping and handling charges you charge, it takes away from the profit. I also work with a couple of antique stores and have had quite a bit of success. I have also done a couple of inventory buyouts of estates sales, we agree to a set price for all the leftovers that don’t sell by a particular time.
Timing is important too. I am preparing to list some summer stuff bought for pennies on the dollar last fall. I’ve already sold some $40 inflatable kiddy pools for $15, I paid $3 each for them. And anything over 5 pounds is shipped UPS truck freight, it is much cheaper than USPS. Plus you can email the buyer the shipping manifest number and a link the the UPS site and they can watch their purchase travel right up to thier doorstep. And schedule your auctions to end at peak user times, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons and early evenings are best. Watching an auction end with no activity at 11 pm or 5 am is not a lot of fun. I’ve had items do nothing till the last hour it was available.
Paypal has already been mentioned. I would not use it unless you are going to do a couple hundred dollars a week in business. Getting slapped with $20 to $40 in fees when you least expect it can make a dent in the wallet. There are cheaper services available but many customers like having to only deal with on credit card service. I only use Paypal for higher end items that I can roll the cost into the item being sold.
Thanks racer72, would either of these Ebooks have good info?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2981028969&category=20924
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2981484475&category=20924
Define “profit”. I sell only good working electronics on eBay. I can buy something for $12 and sell it for $300. But if you count the other things I bought that turn out not to be good enough to sell, the “profit” ratio gets a whole lot lower. Also, that $12 item might have taken a couple hours to fix up.
So I make enough for the odd car repair job, replacing an appliance once in a great while, etc.
If I wanted to make real money, I would have to spend a phenomenal amount of time going to thrift shops, garage sales, etc.
(What I am actually doing is financing my hobby. I just love fixing up some old piece of crap. The sales help pay for parts and the next stuff I’ll buy.)
I sell clothes on eBay - some commission, some my old clothes, and some bought at markets. If you combined all the time I spend writing descriptions, taking photos, mailing winners, wrapping items, it would probably be 3 - 4 working days, so it’s not bad for a university student. I usually make anywhere from $500 - $1000 a month, with actual profit around $300 - $600. But I’m lucky in that I have a constant source of cheap designer labels, and I have a fairly good idea of what my target buyer wants (hell, I am my target buyer). Try to stay in your area of interest - it gives you a good knowledge base to start from, and better chances of spotting bargains and knowing what buyers will want. Plus it’s more fun. Trawling through the markets doesn’t seem like work because it’s something I’d do anyway, and quite enjoy doing.
Shipping
Try to mail items as soon as you can. Buyers appreciate, and will return to, sellers who provide fast and friendly service. Package items well, and if that costs you time and/or money, you might consider charging a handling fee. I lose about 50c worth of packaging material for every auction, but I get better prices than most people selling similar items, so I come out ahead in the end.
Auction
Have a clear and fairly simple layout - none of those horrible flashing gifs or music in the background. Describe the item as best you can, and have a good photo. Some people have their terms of sale in the auction - if you do, try not to make it too threatening (I will leave NEGATIVE FEEDBACK for any bidders who WASTE MY TIME!). My personal rule of thumb is that if the TOS is longer than the item description, it’s time to rewrite. Include the price of shipping in the description and if you combine items, mention that too.
Timing
I’ve gotten much better prices when I’ve listed my auctions together. Buyers will usually check what other items are available from the same seller, so it’s better to sell 20 items at the same time rather than 2 items a week for 10 weeks.
That’s about all I can think of at the moment. Good luck!
Kayeby - where do you buy designer clothes? Goodwill?
I have thought of selling designer clothes before but as you said, i do not have my finger on the pulse of the subculture. I always check ahead of a purchase to see what the demand is (i.e., how many auctions are completed with a bid) and what the normal winning amount is before i buy something though. I think this may be enough to give me a slight edge in buying & selling things like clothes.
I have sold rare and antiquarian books on Ebay since 1998. I wouldn’t know how to sell anything else, but it took me a while to become profitable on a consistent basis. The most important asset I have is expertise in a fairly small area. There are a few authors and a few areas of interest I know very well. This knowledge helps me understand what will sell, and at what price.
I buy almost all of my books from traditional auction houses, which is essentially the wholesale book market. The fall in the dollar has killed me as I used to buy from British auction houses and resell to Americans. I don’t do that much anymore because my margins have been shot to hell.
The most important change I have made is to increase my average cost per book purchase and my average sale price. The time spent listing any individual item is roughly the same if it is expected to sell for $20 or $200. Therefore, if I have $1,000 in capital to spend I might buy five books for $200 each. I would usually expect close to $2,000 after fees. Too many people are afraid to spend that much. So they buy 200 $5 books and sell them all for $10. The amount of time necessary to list and package that much material will drive you out of business pretty quickly.
I am sure my system doesn’t apply to most areas, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt.
Re: Thrift stores and designer clothes. Yep, they have them.
It took a while for Mrs. FtG to catch on to the concept of going to thrift stores and getting “clothes too expensive for her but that are actually cheaper.” Actually went with her today. She loves wearing designer stuff to work that she only payed a couple dollars for.
Note that it is easy for women’s clothes because of that whole “I know it doesn’t fit now but I’ll lose weight” mindset that leads to unworn clothes going to Goodwill a year later.
Guys usually don’t get that much clothes to begin with, wear most of them ‘til they’re rags etc. So what you see are mainly gifts (“Why does my mother think I’d ever wear anything green?”) or dead guys’ clothes. The latter are usually things no guy would wear and the former is more for the goth/retro crowd.
While on the way today she also re-told the story about visiting her aunt last summer and her aunt and a friend showed up at a swanky cocktail party wearing the same top. The aunt paid full price from the catalog, the friend $1. Like a good hubby I pretended I hadn’t heard the story before. I hope you’ll do the same when I repeat here.
Yea, my girlfriend gets most of her jeans at the local thrift store, cause it’s like 5 bucks for a new pair there versus $30-40 new. And it’s the same brands and jeans are usually better broken in anyway. I manage to scrounge a few t-shirts, but the men’s section is just like you said, devoid of any real quality.
I’ve checked in op shops and the like, but haven’t found much. I did find a nice musical compact that I sold for quite a nice price (I can’t remember, but I think it was somewhere from $50 - 70). I have a flea market near me where lots of people my age sell clothes - not the big international brands, but usually nice Australian middle-market labels that originally retailed anywhere from $50 to $300.
I’ve found that in op shops, the ratio of “good stuff” to “crap” isn’t worth my time. At the markets it takes 2 hours every week and I’m almost guaranteed to come away with at least $50 worth of goods, whereas at thrift stores I’m lucky to find one sellable item after a whole day of searching.
Wesley Clark ,
I was going to respond to your question in the thread that you brought it up in but I see you’ve started your own thread (good for you!) so I’ll respond here.
The money I make on ebay and half.com is mostly in books and CD’s. I am a carnivorous reader and I have a huge library. Right now I am in a ‘deacquisition phase’, cleaning out my house and selling the cast-offs if I can. I get donations of stuff to sell from friends.
So, I don’t actually buy stuff with the intent of selling it and turning a profit. There are much better ideas than mine in this thread already. I hope you get some good advice!
Jelly
italian charms…buy 'em for a quarter a piece, sell them for a few dollars
I have never really bought something for the express purpose of selling it on ebay. I buy things that catch my eye at flea markets, antiques stores, and yard sales. I have a good idea of the going prices of things in my area of interest (1950s kitchenware), so I only purchase things if they are a great bargain and I want them. They end up in the eBay pile if a few months go by and I realize I’ve not used the thing, or it doesn’t seem as nifty as it did when I first saw it, or I’m simply tired of looking at it. I always start my listing at or above the price I paid for it - like I said, I’m not in it to make a profit, but I’m sure as heck going to at least break even.
Every once in a while I’ll stumble across something that ends up going for some insane amount of money; of all things, an old children’s chalkboard made of pasteboard went for almost $50. I get pin money every few months when I go on an ebay jag, but it’s hardly a business.
I do have quite a bit of Christmas and holiday stuff from this year set away to sell next year, though.