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I too have a bunch of these (Jay, don’t judge). I feel a lot of people are simply trying to take advantage of situations. Many of the “rare” ones are actually all I own. I simply approach eBay with honesty. I list things as I think they are and sell them. I have very few returns and typically people are happy with my sales. I do jump on bandwagons if they happen. Last year I sold a Batman comic that had Harley Quinn for over $500 even though I only paid $1 and didn’t feel it’s value was much. Thanks suicide squad.
My thought on those beanies is I try not to deceive. So I list them, mention that some say they are rare, and I put a fair price on them which is not 999 but is higher than a typical beanie.
Good luck with those.Hi all,
Just a quick comment on the podcast. You mentioned that somebody emailed you with a question about earning 200 per week. I too still have a full time job, and sell on ebay during my “spare time”. A year and a half ago I started out with a basic store, 250 fixed listings per month, 21.99 per month if you buy for a year. It took me 4 months to get up to 250 listings. Once I did that, I was consistently at $200 a week easily (I made around 15000 last year I believe, after fees and all). I recently stepped it up to the next level, and am slowly working to get to 1000 listings (right now just around 385, will probably take another 3 months or so as I’m a college prof. And the semester is in full swing right now).I’ll start trying to figure out my numbers and post them, but overall I do OK. I geek out very much with excel in figuring out my exact numbers, I just don’t do it weekly. And I sell for a few different things, which makes it hard as I keep the items separate. Like all of us, I’ve figured it out mostly on my own. I love the podcast and the community, just discovered that, so thank you all very much.
One of my first sales on ebay last year was a windows 98 sealed system with key. It sold for almost $100. I had three of them that I found in drawers that came with computers that were preloaded and installed. All three sold within a few months of listing. Made around 200 total I think.
Time to start playing zork again when I talk about these old systems. I love it
I had extra cardboard on bottom, a little thick cardboard along the sides then some foam and cardboard on top because I had it and it fit. I made it tight to close so nothing would move at all. If I didn’t use zip ties I think the weight of the bike would have allowed things to move no matter how well I packed it.
Thick cardboard is about an inch or so thick. Just FYI.
I picked retail ground one time, because when eBay was showing me options for the heavy package I was sending, that was the cheapest by at least $8 or so. But I was mad when I went to purchase shipping and realized that I could not buy it online. I didn’t know at the time that I could buy it at the post office (and I could no longer see the rate to know what it would be), so I just switched to Fed-Ex family or whatever that’s called. I use priority for most everything as I’m in the Midwest and charges for priority are comparable to most others for most sized packages over 1 lb, but when they get bigger than 12x12x12 or heavy, I switch it to Fed-Ex ground. It’s just a pain because it charges my eBay account, not PayPal directly, and so when I pay my monthly ebay bill I have to remember that I had shipping included in my fees.
So a few notes on this one. I tried adding in business policies and it was just too crazy at the moment, so I opted out again. My listings are just all over the place, and it was really just a huge mess. I’ll sit myself down this week-end and try again.
I had a buyer last week purchase a purse on Monday, and send me a note saying that she was moving on Saturday and she wanted me to send it to her new address, but wait to mail it on Saturday. I have one day shipping in my policies, so here is what I did. I waited until the last minute to purchase the label. Then, when I purchased the label, I can pre-date it for up to 3-4 days later than today (I forget what it is, prob. 3 – so I can buy a label today and actually ship it on Friday). So I did that, waited until Friday and shipped it then. I told her that because of policies I had to ship it one day earlier than what she asked me for, but she was just fine with that. And when she got there, it was waiting for her. Best thing, no marks on my shipping as far as I can tell. So that’s a nice work-around for just being a few days late if needed.
I run a mac desktop and I have a Zebra S400 (was just sitting in my closet from over 15 years ago, and found that it works great) and I just bought a zebra GK420T per Griff’s advice. Both are running on different mac desktops. I haven’t tried to print from my iPad, but I’ll do that later tonight to see if it can be done. iPads can really only print to network printers or to newer ones with air printing so I have to use my desktop to share the printer with my iPad. I like the zebra because labels are very cheap ($20 or less for 1000 labels). You have to play a bit to get the darkness right so that the barcode will scan, but once you get it figured out it works great. I love the concept of no more printer ink.
So I’m a small seller on eBay compared to most, but I will go through some days when there is nothing happening for 3-5 days, which is a little odd even for me. When that happens, I typically revise some old listings. In many cases I lower the prices and maybe change a few of the smaller details. In other cases, I actually raise the price and also do a few minor tweaks. Any time I do that, it seems like one of those items that I changed sells within a day of me messing with it. Even the ones where I raise the prices. And typically when this happens, it’s a full price pay, not an offer. Guess I should just sit around and edit/change things all day every day. Might be a good strategy 😉
So I have yet to ever tell another person that they made an error (I just don’t browse enough), but I have had others tell me I have an error, and I’ve always appreciated it. I list things for our local thrift shop and so often times I have no clue what it is I’m listing, and no amount of research is going to make me an online expert. So I make my best guess and list, and depend on others who do know more to let me know if I have an error. The one community that has corrected me on multiple occasions is the collectible doll group. I know absolutely nothing about dolls, they come to our store often and they can be very tricky to distinguish in terms of old vintage ones vs. just badly kept ones.
So I appreciate the comments. I always thank them and let them know I’m grateful. Keep on keeping on.
I work and live full time in Greencastle, but am often in Indy on the week-ends. I could possibly come out during the week some time if planned in advance. I’ll try my best to join in. Thanks
So I have a question for you. When managed payments started, I noticed that they did not give any benefits to those that sell for charity. I have 2 charities I sell for, both of which I give 100% to the charity. In doing that, there are no eBay fees at all (I get refunds on all of my post sale fees from ebay). In managed payments, they said that was not an option.
Is that still the case? I’m trying to figure it out – as PayPal doesn’t give me a break, so I am paying a percentage of all transactions to Paypal. So if I remove PayPal, and then pay the normal eBay fees, maybe that’s comparable or less than what I’m paying now.
Any thoughts here? Sorry, it’s probably not what you’re using it for, but I just wanted to ask. Thanks
Thanks for the info Jay. I was mad last week I feel because I had listed something as retail ground, as that was one of my sellers choices, due to the fact that the package was big and heavy. After somebody bought it and paid for shipping, I went to purchase and retail ground was not an option. What??? Why is that? They gave me the option as a seller, why can’t I buy that on eBay? As it was I didn’t know I could do it through USPS, so I just picked the next closest thing, lost $5 or so in shipping, and shipped it (prob via Fed-Ex Home Delivery).
That helps me to know that I can still offer retail ground as an option but I have to purchase shipping outside of eBay. A little annoying, but I do have a few items that are very heavy and bulky, so a good cheap shipping option is sometimes preferred.
Thanks
One note I forgot (sorry, first time post for me). Apple recently changed their picture types, so on my desktop I can no longer drag my photos from iPhoto to my browser with eBay (anybody do it that way?). So when I list from my desktop, I first have to open an empty folder on my desktop, drag my photos from iPhoto to the folder (that makes them into jpegs instead of whatever format live photos are), then drag them from the folder to the browser. On the iPad, I can just take them directly from my photo album with no worries. So it’s a little faster for me (I don’t edit pictures, beyond just rotating them often for whatever weird reason).
So everything I do is MAC based, either an iMac desktop, iPad with attached keyboard, or iPhone. I use the cloud for everything, so I take pics on my iPhone, wait about a minute, and they are then available on my iPad and MAC. Depending on where I am, I use my iPad with the eBay app for listing most of the time (for me it’s fast). Desktops are static, and my desktop is not right near where all my stuff is, so I do prefer the mobile listing when possible. On certain occasions when I need more information, I will use my iPad with the browser. It’s exactly the same as my desktop, just smaller. So on some very rare occasions when I need to really manage it all (look at my pictures, see what’s listed, etc…), I’ll bring my iPad to my desktop and have everything open (I even have an additional monitor on my desktop – so I have a war room going with multiple monitors letting me see the entire picture).
I do prefer the browser over the app, but for some fast listings I find the app is fine, it’s quicker once you get used to it and it’s mostly complete. I wish it were easier to send invoices via the app. That’s really the main feature I’ll go to a desktop or browser for.
