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02/08/2018 at 4:31 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Phono cartridge, Sony CD player, VHS re-winder, Hot Wheel set, Amateur painting #32545
If I wanted an item without a cord, I would buy it. Pretty easy to make your own cord or wire electronic items directly if they are missing cords, you know what you are doing, and make it safe.
My best book sales have always been books with a very narrow topic or of a specific local interest…
Then other books are worthless:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/15/stop-giving-us-copies-da-vinci-code-says-charity-shop/
My wife and I hug each other everytime our phones make the cha-ching noise when we are together.
Must look odd in the grocery store when one of our phones goes, then the other a few seconds later, and we start smiling and quickly hug.
I agree with @So Cal Joe – you are going to need two scales if you want to measure very light items and heavy items – no scale will handle both.
I use a Dymo USB Postal Scale that handles up to 50lbs, but in lower increments it only is accurate to about 2 oz. For smaller items, I have a digital kitchen scale I bought at Target – does the job so far and was only a few dollars.
02/07/2018 at 11:22 am in reply to: For those who are new or considering selling on eBay part-time – $1,000/month #32417I work full time 9-5, M-F, but I do stack on other moonlighting jobs as I can to increase my income beyond just eBay sales.
I also work on the weekend helping people (mostly seniors) setup OTA TV Antennas, setup/mount there new TV, help them setup their computer/wifi systems, and other home entertainment gear. I also do odd jobs when someone asks for help like shoveling snow, cutting grass, planting gardens, help with there businesses when they get busy, etc.
I get a lot of calls asking for help with OTA Antennas and accessories lately – with channels changing locations in the next couple years, and the format changing again, it could be a good business the next 10 years if you don’t mind heights, ladders, and drilling holes in walls.
I always wonder how much work I could get if I put out on classified sites all the different “businesses” I could start…
I offer non-GSP international shipping on an item by item basis.
Some items (usually large or very valuable) are not worth the hassle if someone has an issue to try and sort out return shipping from a foreign country.
There are countries that have great postal services with excellent tracking (U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia) and others that I would never send to without knowing I’m taking a risk.
Also, you can setup your seller preferences to accept only bids/offers from those with higher feedback scores that are more trustworthy – however, that may eliminate some buyers that are local.
As a buyer that is located outside of the U.S., I can tell you that if I want something, I’ll pay the GSP extras to get it to me safely and guaranteed. I do appreciate the odd seller that offers direct shipping to Canada, but it is a risk to the seller.
My advice is as follows:
-invest in a good camera. I found that having a good camera makes a difference. My wife and I both are Nikon J2 users, but plenty of newer models exist, and by other manufacturers that are good quality and offer lots of automated features to take great photos. The Nikon J2 I use is about $200 used on eBay, but there are a lot of other options.
-make sure you have lots of light – if you see any desk lamps or other lighting that may work for your space when scavenging, I would suggest picking up a few fixtures. Lighting is different depending on the items you are selling – flat items require different light then a small 3D item, a large 3D items requires different lighting – once you have a few light sources to play with, you’ll get a good setup.
-have a few backgrounds – I have a white and black background as some items look better on a different background – for example, a white shirt looks better on black then the white backing.
-I find that editing photos is easier on the computer – I just use the photo editor in Windows 10 that comes part of the OS, but lots of free editors are on the web. I’ve used many over the last 20 years and the ones I like are the ones that crop, and brighten photos easily.
-I personally do my tasks separately when it comes to photos – I will photograph a bunch of items for a couple hours, then edit them all at once, and then list – I find it easier to keep doing one task instead of bouncing back and forth.
Photography is still a lot of work, but it’s better than what I use to have to do 20 years ago when I first started on eBay! I use to have a 35mm film camera that I would take photos with, bring the film to the local 1-hour photo place, scan the photos in my computer, then edit them. At the time, eBay didn’t host photos and you would need to host them on a 3rd part website like Geocities. To post a photo, you would have to know HTML coding. The way things work on eBay today is great, and customers get to see much better photos of what they are buying.
02/05/2018 at 3:10 pm in reply to: For those who are new or considering selling on eBay part-time – $1,000/month #32187I agree with everything you said!
I’ve been an eBay seller for over 20 years – and the little extra income doesn’t hurt. Over the years I’ve been unemployed, underemployed, and working full-time and no matter what my situation, I always had eBay to get me through.
You can work as hard or as little as you want – for example, I typically scavenge once or twice a week at lunch, and maybe spend a Saturday once every 4-6 weekends out of town scavenging. I’ll spend the time when I feel like it listing.
The only discipline you need is to plan shipping time on a daily basis – we average anywhere between 2-5 items sold a day so I get up 30 minutes early every morning to put everything together, and my wife drops everything off at the post office.
With our skills, we average around $25-$30 profit per hour when we keep track of the time we put into eBay – the more we scavenge and list, we still consistently pull around that income.
We generally land between $1000 and $1500 a month in extra income – we both work other jobs, so it is great extra cash. We are going to have no issue retiring in our early 50’s at the rate we are going – but even then we’ve discussed our post-retirement eBay plans as we enjoy the process! Even at $1000-$1500 a month, it is enough to keep the bills paid and food on the table if things ever go really bad for us.
You have to love doing eBay if you work elsewhere 40+ hours a week – and we enjoy searching for items to sell, getting them ready to sell, and we especially love it when our phones make that great “Cha-Ching” noise throughout the day!
It’s also a great skill – I’ve worked for several places that shutdown or moved over the last 20 years – and everytime I’ve lost a job, I just ramp up my eBay sales and listings to get me through.
It is also something I find most people can’t do – you need to have an eye to find good items to sell, skills with the camera, and some computer/phone skills to list the items. The discipline to ship daily once is also something you need.
Basically, like any job that pays an hourly wage – the more time you put in, the more money you make.
@CTVintage – I’m not selling on eBay full time at the moment, but when I’ve been unemployed or under-employed, we always used eBay income to get by week to week in those time periods.
When we would have a “bad” week, we would adjust our budget the next week on items we could control – things like groceries and any other luxuries. We would also limit buying more inventory unless it was an easy sale until we had a “good” week where we had some extra money to spend.
It’s a difficult balancing act – but once you have a few “bad” weeks where you need to budget, and then have some amazing weeks where you feel you hit the jackpot, you’ll get use to the ups and downs, learn to plan days that are not that great, and learn from any mistakes you made.
As time goes on, you will see an income pattern – for us, it was a good income when times were tough and it paid the bills, but we ended up going back to working for others for consistent income and still sell on eBay more as a hobby.
It’s going to be emotional, and challenging, but over an extended time period you will see the amount of income you average for your efforts and be able to decide to continue, or seek other options for income.
02/02/2018 at 1:00 pm in reply to: What Sells On eBay: Stereo brochure, Carl Jung book, Typewriter, Bike helmet #31929$50 for a Yankee Candle! Aren’t those usually $10 or less at TJ Maxx or Marshalls?
Never thought of them being worth anything…but would I want them in my inventory? Nothing stinks worse then a Yankee Candle – except maybe the “perfume” wafting from a Victoria’s Secret or the cosmetic counter at Macy’s.
BOGO – Buy One Get One
Usually “BOGO Free” or “BOGO 50% off” – Payless Shoes always had BOGO everyday – Buy One, Get One 50% off.
02/02/2018 at 12:55 pm in reply to: My scavenger corruption of my family is nearing completion…MuwaHAHAHAHA! #31927I like corrupting family to scavenge for me. There are a couple things I enjoy repairing and selling that my family (even extended family) knows to pick up when they see it at a garage sale, thrift store, or in the garbage…
I also have a few family members / friends that will call me before they donate or throw out anything in case I want it to sell on eBay…some great stuff for free!
I have a few friends/family that are the opposite though – they have something that they insist is valuable, want me to sell it for them and give them all the money. In some cases what they have is worthless and it ends up being an argument about how eBay/Paypal fees work, that the item isn’t worth anything, etc.
My January was average for the number of listing I have at the moment – nothing exciting, but still a decent month.
On the Super Bowl thing, only places that pay the NFL can use the term. That’s why you see generic terms like “Super Sunday”, “Big Game”, “Football Special”, “Philly vs. New England” etc. in ads that are following the rules. Brands like Papa John’s, Pepsi/Frito-Lay, Budweiser, etc. pay big bucks to use the terms and logos of the NFL on their products.
The NFL even busted a local church last year for a Super Bowl viewing party they didn’t license as they advertised it on a sign out front of the church.
I know a lot of bars get sub-licensing to use the term “Super Bowl” if they have Budweiser in the ad – such as “Bud Light Super Bowl Party at Joe’s Bar”
Anyways, just wanted to make awareness that probably in your own community are a trained group of people that are making $$$ turning in trademark infringers.
It’s not always the company that is coming directly at you – most of these companies hire firms to protect their trademarks, etc and those firms hire everyday people to find counterfeit goods or illegal uses of their trademarks.
I have an uncle that is retired and his part-time hobby is to find businesses using trademarks illegally and report them to the law firm he is connected to. This time of the year is his favorite as one of their customers is the NFL and he finds lots of local bars and pizza places using the term “Super Bowl” without permission.
So, it may not be necessarily the company that is coming after you, but someone who gets a cut of a fine if you get busted, or gets a small fee for finding and preventing you from selling what they deem as a counterfeit item.
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