I sold an old book on Palmistry for $800 US.
Bought another copy for $5.
Sold a USED, BROKEN INKJET for $23 + Shipping
Sold a Broken CD player (rare, however) for $46 + Shipping!
Astonishing.
Want a tip: Email all your buyers WHY they are buying. You won’t be right 50% of the time, unless you are an expert in the category.
Skammer, I saw a Lewis and Clark that may be the same edition (1814, they say) at Powell’s for $60000. Take a look before you set your reserve, or sell it to Powell’s or a similar dealer.
A $60,000 reserve would be quite an ebay fee if it didn’t sell, eh? Better to put it in a big auction place like Butterfield & Butterfield who give free online estimates.
If that’s what you have, maybe even Sotheby’s will take it.
hurm, I have had some great deals from e-bay.
80 dollar vest for 31 shipping
a sable hat for 80 bucks
I have noticed it pays to be patient.
I wanted a laptop. I bid on close to 40 and was always outbid.
which was fine, I stuck to my price and finally got a nice laptop for a dance and a song.
Of course, some things I would not sell, Such as my collection of 17th century Dutch thrology books. Not enough people on ebay who would be interested in them I reckon.
At my last newspaper job, I ran the TV page, so I resold the publicity materials.
This made me some bucks, because I was offering something that was actually somewhat rare to fans of the Beatles, Tom Selleck and The Ninth Kingdom (for which a deluxe boxed edition of the show, with paperweight and fancy box went for $140! I remember telling my wife “I don’t believe this, I simply don’t believe someone’s willing to pay that much.” And then I got the money order.)
I picked up a first edition Mark Twain “Around the Equator” for far under market value ($80 versus $200+) because the guy wrote a one-sentence description and didn’t provide a photo. It was a risk, but it was worth it. (No, I didn’t sell it. I wanted the book.)
At the same time, I overbidded on a first of Hemingway’s “Winner Takes Nothing” with color xerox dust jacket. I paid $203 for it. You can buy one now on ebay for $60-$70.
During the time when I was heavily into selling books and games on ebay, my wife asked me to sell the small meat carver we had for a few years. Nothing special about it; I bought it at a Chinese store when I was learning how to cook in a wok. That went for about $11, including shipping.
I’ve read a few stories about how people were complaining about going out of business on ebay, and it usually was people who were heavily into “collectibles” like Beanie Babies and Dale Earnhardt merchandise; items that once were hot and no longer were.
Recently, I read a story about one of the most successful businesses, dubbed something like “1centCDs.” A couple turned it into a small business, with 3 employees helping to fulfill orders. The guy buys CDs in bulk from pawn shops and used CD stores, who love him because they can dump several thousand at a time on him. On the down side, they haven’t been able to take a vacation in three years. They’re working constantly.
I think for sports cards, it can often be a buyer’s market. I buy a lot of hockey cards on eBay, and I have always paid well below Beckett’s book value for the cards I’ve gotten. Of course, sports cards really have no intrinsic value, and it helps if, like me, you are interested in not-so-popular teams and players.
I’ve gotten some great deals on CDs on e-bay. Many of them less than $5 including shipping. However, it’s a case of supply and demand. For example, though I was extrodinarily happy to find such things as Self’s Breakfast with Girls* and Possum Dixon’s New Sheets I think 98% of people browsing the cd listings would pass them by because they have no idea who the bands are.