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Hello Scavengers!
I’ve been buying/selling on ebay since 2002. For years before that I used local newspapers / bulletin boards to sell. This has always been a hobby or a way to dispose of our excess items at the best value. When I was an active long-distance bicycler, I sourced much of my bike parts on ebay and sold just as many. At the same time, I’ve been the one that grabs an item from the trash if it still has value or is usable. Some of my most profitable items have been “recovered” items, but at potential embarrassment to my wife!
I’ve had a modestly successful career (32+ years) in corporate finance. I’ve recently retired in my mid-50s and this was possible by: 1) Earning a good living 2) Saving a large portion of it 3) LUCK…no devastating illnesses or tragedies for my family. I can’t stress the 3rd point enough…I’ve an accomplished sibling that lost their savings and career taking care of a suddenly disabled child. They will work into their 70s just to “get by” in retirement. It is simply GOOD LUCK, so far, that I’ve had a different path. I am very grateful!
I gross about $100 – $200 a month now on ebay. I’d like to take that to $800 – $1000 a month to cover our medical insurance cost. This is bound by both time and space that I can devote to ebay. Reaching that target level is tougher than I expected: 1) Sourcing has been disappointing 2) Prices have stagnated or fallen IMHO. (For example, some very collectible military items are at the same price they were 15 years ago. The bicycle craze of 2008-2012 has cooled off. My children tell me Millenials buy and sell on Facebook, not ebay….the available platforms are multiplying)
My strategy is to sell at a minimum of 5X+ cost and preferably $30 or more. It’s tough to find enough items that meet that criteria. My home area is higher income than most so I expect qood quality stuff. I volunteer weekly at a high volume thrift store, visit 3 others weekly, and stop in about 4 estate sales monthly. I’m finding qualifying items, but certainly not enough of them and not enough in condition to sell. (Examples: quality tents…but missing the poles, high-end jackets…with a stain, good electronics…missing knobs or power cords)
My niche is outdoor sporting equipment and clothing (hunting, fishing, hiking and boating), tools, older books and items my family doesn’t use anymore. I experiment with other categories when I find them, but I’ve found clothing to not be very profitable. So most clothes I sell are from our own closet.
I have a strategy of listing some items at $10 or less. These tend to be excess items from my own use, and have a market but at a low price. Occasionally I’ll buy these items, if I can buy under a $1.00. I find these items will bring customers to view your other items and the extra activity boosts you in the searches. Of course, I have no real data to support this…other than # of views and the fact that my higher value items tend to sell when the low-value stuff is being viewed.
Any advice or comments are welcomed by me.
Jay and Ryanne,
I love what you do and the honesty with which you discuss it. Thanks for doing it! -
Welcome! You’re absolutely correct that most of us are just one illness/accident from bankruptcy. Best we can do is hedge our bets.
If Ryanne and I ever had an illness, we have decent health insurance and the time to heal since our eBay store could go on autopilot for a while. If one of us were to die, the other would have a successful business to keep going.
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Hi Fellow Georgian,
I’m in the NW corner of Georgia, in Rome. I used to sell on Ebay full time but for the last 18 months it’s been just a hobby. Even as hobby you should be able to get to $800-$1,000 a month. Following Ryanne and Jay’s advice, I worked my tail off to get to 500 items in my store. That amount of inventory led to consistent sales for me. I now try to keep 900 items in my store but it’s been slipping to 850ish items. To store all of this, I’ve had to be militant about organization. I make good use out of shelving and rubbermaid bins. It’s amazing how much I can store when it’s organized.
Over the last 18 months I’ve had very little time for ebay, some weeks I might spend 16 hours on ebay (sourcing, listing, shipping) while other weeks I spend only enough time to get my shipments out. My profit (after all expenses) over those 18 months has ranged from $550 to $1200/month. I’m pretty happy with that considering how little time I devote to it these days. If I spent 2 days on it every week, I’m sure I’d be over $1,500 every month.
In Peachtree City, I would think you may have access to some good Estate Sales. Most Estate Sale companies will reduce the prices about halfway through the sale in order to move everything out. I always wait for the half price time to source at those sales. The prices are generally better than what you’ll find at many thrift stores (depending on the Estate Sale company – some are much better than others).
You might think about expanding the types of items you sell. I’ve had to do this a number of times as tastes have changed and to accomodate for the types of items I can find in my area. I learned “what sold” by watching every “what sold” video available on this site as well as some other similar videos on YouTube. I also used to do searches by category on Ebay to see the types of items that were bringing in good money. For example, search “board games” and filter to see only the “sold” board games, and then sorted by price, highest to lowest. I did this a lot in my free time using my phone and ebay app.
Best wishes in your reseller journey!
Julie
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Hey Julie, I’m like 45 minutes away from Rome in Dallas! We could go scavenging together some time but I guess that wouldn’t work since we’d be competing against each other lol. I clicked on your profile and noticed you mentioned you’ve been an extra. I did that too a few times! Crazy how many movies are being filmed here now.
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Thank you for the good advice. Especially the search to see what’s selling on ebay. I’ve never thought of that. I’m probably passing over some valuable items while sourcing. For instance, I sold a plastic chess set a few weeks ago at $30 and it moved in just a couple of days. Quite honestly, I had no idea there was quite a market for the make and color until I got it home. I had purchased it for my own use. Simply stumbled on it and selling it wasn’t what I expected. Not a huge win, but it met all my criteria…and most of all sold FAST. I need 10 of those a week.
Regarding time…I can only devote about 2 hours a day to ebay. That includes sourcing, but I don’t have to travel far like Jay and Ryanne do. Sounds like I could achieve the desired sales rate, but I’ll have to work up to about 40X more listings than I currently carry.
Thanks!
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