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Hi everyone, I’m yet another Georgian who just joined the forum. I started selling on eBay in January 2017 in an attempt to downsize my belongings while also making a little money on the side to help with bills. I’m a scientist by day so I took the same approach with eBay as I do with anything research related. That is to say, learn as much as you can in order to become successful. In doing so I stumbled across the podcast and became an avid listener. Scavenger Life is by far the best resource I’ve found. I cannot praise both this community and Jay and Ryanne enough.
After listening to the podcast and making a couple sales I made my first foray into a thrift store (a Goodwill just down the road), bought my first item for $5, and sold it within a month for $50. I’ve been hooked ever since. I currently have an eBay store with close to 700 items in it. On average I gross a little over $1,000 per month and I’m trying to take that number much higher. I source wherever I can. I’ve had success with Facebook marketplace, thrift stores (mainly Goodwill so far), and MaxSold auctions. Funny to hear the pros and cons of MaxSold recently mentioned on the podcast. So far my experience has been win-win.
I’m really looking forward to joining in on all the amazing conversations people have on this forum!
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Hi nick, welcome, yes you found the good guys, and now you’re one of them, not saying you were a bad guy before, just a good guy outsider! The Podcast and forum has transformed my eBay & Etsy selling, and transformed my mind. What happens here and how it benefits active members should not be understated. It will be interesting hearing about your successes with the scientific approach applied to buy & sell. See you around the forums, oh and congrats on changing $5 into $50, good science.
Tom
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Welcome! I’m also new to the forums. I’ve been selling for years, and I agree that Scavenger Life is the best resource out there for serious sellers. It totally changed the game for me. As someone who’s newer to Ebay, you’ll be able to avoid the mistakes a lot of us made early on.
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Hey Nick. Why do you think MaxSold works so well for you to scavenge? My guess is that in an urban area there’s probably online auctions nearby that are ending each day so easy to view and pick up?
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Jay, you hit the nail on the head. The metro Atlanta area has at least half a dozen auctions every week, most with pickups scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. The majority of the time the auctions are close enough to each other (within an hour driving distance) that I can bid on items from multiple auctions and make a day out of picking up a bunch of stuff. Unfortunately I live about an hour and a half away from Atlanta, but Maxsold has become my main method of sourcing these days. While the driving time investment is high for me, I figure if I’m not driving around sourcing most other days it is worth it.
I have struggled to find any auctions near me that do box lots so I’ve resorted to using Maxsold to source large lots of inventory for cheap. I routinely am able to pick up lots for a dollar or two, and almost always find a single item that paid for both the lot as well as the gas it took to pick up everything. One of my favorite things to do is to view an auction a couple hours before it closes and put in $1 bids on anything that hasn’t gotten a bid yet. The people who run the auctions also aren’t always the best at taking quality photographs/staging items for pictures so some lots may look like there really isn’t anything great there. I think this keeps a lot of people from bidding on items because it’s so hard to tell what you’re getting. I’ve found I’m able to get stuff so cheap that even if the majority of the items aren’t that great, there’s always enough hidden gems to make the time and money investment worth it.
Here’s an example of one of the $1 lots I was able to pick up. I’ve already sold 4 things for a net profit of $58.45 and have another 26 items listed with an average list price of $25.18.
https://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/12257/item/religious-tapes-and-media-a-1135501/This past Saturday I picked this lot up for $2 and will be testing it and posting it to eBay this week.
https://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/12859/item/electronics-sansui-and-technics-a-1172480/Finally, here’s an example of a lot I took a chance on even though the pictures weren’t that great. This is the lot I mentioned in this week’s podcast thread that had the Ferragamos, Coach, and Gucci shoes/boots.
https://maxsold.maxsold.com/auction/12429/item/mens-women-boots-and-shoes-a-1149283/ -
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Maxsold can be pretty magical. Earlier this year, I went to a maxsold auction pick-up that also had a fill a bag sale.
They originally planned on having a second maxsold sale, but then figured they’d be better off just having the people already there buy more of what they wanted. The sale was not advertised to the general public.
I ended up filling up a few boxes of 1960s magazines, records, barkcloth fabric, and 1940s-1980s clothing for $30. On top of the auction winnings I had originally come for.
Also, they had a few lots with no bids that they let everyone take what they wanted from. There was one lot 95% full of junk I had thought of bidding on for the good items, but decided against it. This was one of the no-bid lots. I ended up getting the items I wanted from the lot for free, without having to worry about getting rid of the junk.
That’s the only time that has happened at a maxsold pick-up foe me, but it was cool.
One bad thing about Maxsold is that you have to take everything that you want, which can sometimes be A LOT of junk. If you don’t take it all, they’ll indicate it as not picked up and ban you from bidding on future auctions.
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I mentioned a week or two ago about MaxSold, and my experience is similar to Nick and Almasty. Right now, I’m on the other side because I set up an auction for a friend who wanted to downsize. I made sure not to make the mistakes I see in their other auctions. I want that for when I go shopping, but not when someone else is buying!
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