eBay & Beyond for 2014

I started my EBay listing adventure in May of 2013. I don’t remember exactly what made the light bulb turn on that I could buy items strictly to resell, but once I sold that first item and made a profit, I was hooked. The first couple of months, buying to resell was something that I did nonchalantly. If I was at a flea market or a thrift store and I saw an item that I thought I could flip, I would purchase it. I have been going to flea markets since I was little, so the picking aspect wasn’t anything new to me.

It wasn’t until I had multiple sales that I decided that with more knowledge and time, I could turn this buying to resell into a part-part-part time job. Gradually month after month, I would spend more time looking at sales on ebay, reading blogs, and joining reselling and ebay Facebook groups to increase my knowledge and train my eye on what items to buy. At the end of 2013, I walked away with $1,067 in pure profit. To some resellers, they make that much in one day. For me, this was an accomplishment and an acknowledgement that if I put in more time and more research, I could bring in even more money.

Having the extra cash is something that helped me out this past year. Whether it was for unexpected car maintenance or even helping with Christmas gifts, my wallet didn’t feel the pinch as much when my PayPal funds provided some cushioning. I envy those that are able to be full time ebay sellers and not have to work in the corporate world. There is money to be made from thrifting and that’s my goal in 2014.

So what will it take? Have you made your New Year’s Resolutions? Most will commit to healthier eating, spending more time at the gym, less gossip, and more real interaction. All of these are attainable if one puts in a solid effort. However, I haven’t made resolutions as much as I have made goals.

My main goal is to at least double my profits from 2013. $2,000 is a drop in the bucket for most, but for me to sell that much would be great. If I can triple my 2013 profit, that would be even better – but, let’s start small and work our way up!

How will I do this? I’ve already taken two steps in order to make my EBay “business” easier. I have purchased a photo studio light box. I’ve gotten tired of dragging items outside to set them up on my deck. I don’t want to have to deal with shadows or pictures that need excessive touch ups. With the light box, I have different backdrops to choose from and now I don’t have to worry about making sure that the picture background is okay. The second step is I have finally ordered a scale to weigh items. Finally! Though I have gotten pretty good at estimating the cost of a package shipped out priority, I have lost money by underestimating the cost to ship. I also am looking forward to printing out postage at home and scheduling pick ups of the items I sell. While there are a few local post offices in the area, it will definitely be a real time saver to just put the boxes on my porch and have the mailman take them away.

The third thing that I did was join The Appsters. This is a private group run by Danni Ackerman of The Danni App. If you are new to reselling, you must check out The Danni App! There are old podcasts on Itunes but also check out her website and join her Facebook group. The amount of information that is posted on a daily basis on the Facebook page is unbelievable. A whole new world of reselling is opened and you won’t believe what can sell on EBay! I started listening to the podcasts over the summer and really enjoyed hearing about the “Score of the Week” and the adventures of going to yard sales.

On the Facebook group, I kept hearing about the Appsters and having access to webinars and all sorts of other information not available in the regular Facebook group. This is a pay subscription group, with the cost of either paying by the month or paying for a year. The price per month is $29.95 and the year subscription gives you twelve months for the price of eleven. I thought about joining for a few days, tossing the idea around in my mind. For someone just starting out in reselling, I thought that the money that I paid per month could be used instead for buying merchandise or even for other necessary things like gas and groceries. For me, that $30 could be used in so many other ways. But, then I thought of it in reselling terms: I had to sell one item – just one item – at $30 a month to cover the cost.

I said yes to signing up to the Appsters. I took a leap because I want to double, triple, quadruple my EBay sales and gain more information about the world of reselling. If I would just stay stagnant, sure my sales might increase a little but I want to be even more profitable and more knowledgeable about the world of thrifting and reselling.

 Good luck with all of your goals and resolutions - make it happen!

Here's to 2014 - eBay & Beyond!

Betting on Clark Griswold - A Taz Mug Find

“Shitter's full!” Say this phrase and many people will know what you are referring to. Show them a glass shaped like a moose head with antlers for the handles and many people will know what you are referring to. Drink out of a Tazmanian Devil mug and many people will…. what? Read on & learn.

A few months ago while perusing The Danni App Facebook page (“Like” the page now! Well, wait until you are done reading this post first!) I came across a BOLO – Be On the Look Out – for a Taz mug. I thought what could be the big deal about this mug since it was just a ceramic face of the Looney Toon character, who never was one of my favorites. The big deal was the winning auction price at a whopping $127! For a Taz mug! I was intrigued and began reading everyone’s comments about the mug.

While I love National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and have watched it many, many times, the scene where Clark Griswold is drinking out of a Taz mug at the office was never one of the main scenes that stuck out in my head. While I may have forgotten about it, others definitely have not. Apparently having this mug is a big deal, a big deal that brings in bring money on EBay.

I stumbled upon my very own Taz mug one day when I was visiting an antique store by my house, one that I have been to many times. I’m sure this Taz mug had been sitting at this certain booth for quite some time, but I just never noticed it with “eBay vision”. It was sitting next to a Miss Piggy mug, which my eyes quickly bypassed as my pupils grew wide with seeing this Tasmanian devil. It felt like I had found the holy grail of Christmas mugs! I turned the little white tag over to find the selling price of $20. $20?!? I couldn’t believe it. This price seemed too steep for my blood, but knowing that they are popular on eBay, I took out my phone and did a quick search while I nonchalantly looked through the rest of the booth. 

There were a few mugs that were up for auction, with bids ranging in the $50-$70 mark. A buy it now option of $149.99 made me chuckle as I switched to looking at the sold listings. Every mug that had been listed had sold.. and not just for mere pennies. Most auctions ended with bids between $90 and $120 and even higher priced buy it now options had been purchased. Obviously this was a no-brainer in regards to purchasing, but I left the store and left the Taz mug behind because I couldn't justify spending $20 on it.

This decision haunted me for the rest of that night and into the next morning, when after looking a little bit more on eBay, I decided that leaving this mug at the store was a bad decision. A profit was pretty much guaranteed and I would more than get my money back. Off to the antique store I went, where the mug was still sitting in its' spot, ready and waiting. Lucky for me, that weekend the store was having a special holiday event with most booths having sales. The mug's price was dropped down to $16 and I left the store eager to get listing!

It was a slow go with the auction, getting plenty of views and watchers, but no bidders. I had an offer of $70 with free shipping, which I immediately passed on. I had started the auction at $49.95, following in the footsteps of other sold mugs, and knew to wait it out. As the days went by and no bids, I began to wonder if maybe my purchase was a mistake. I added the option of a buy it now for around $90 something, lowering it down to $85.95 with two days left in the auction. There were a few other Taz mugs listed at the same time, all with bids. I was sweating!

Finally, within the last day or so, the bidding started. Dollar by dollar, the bids increased until the winning bidder won at $106.67! I ended up walking away with around $75 profit, after fees which isn't too bad for spending $16. Would I do it again? I'm not sure. Knowing that the mug would sell, I knew that spending the $16 wasn't going to be too big of a risk. Making a $75 profit was good, but that profit would have been even better if I would have paid much less for the mug (say around $1 to $5). 

Lesson: One can't be afraid to spend money to make money in the eBay reselling world. However, you need to make sure that whatever money you spend, you can clearly make a profit on, especially if you are spending larger amounts of cash. While spending $16 might not seem like much to some people, if you can only make double that in profit, it really isn't worth your time or effort. Buy low, sell high!

Christmas Sales & Ebay

It's that time of year again when everyone packs up the car and heads out to their favorite shopping mall in order to score the best deals on toys, home goods, clothes, and everything in between. November through January are high volume times on eBay, due to people searching for the perfect gift and then after the holidays buying what they really wanted. Due to this, my eBay sales should have been soaring through the roof. Everything that I listed should have sold. I should be feeling like Santa, delivering gifts all over the country. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I've hit a slump - a major one. For whatever reason the reselling gods see fit, my sales this month have been zilch. Yes, I know it is still early in the month but that doesn't account for having listed almost twenty items for the end of November and not having one of them sell. Bah humbug. 

So what is the problem? I've gone the Christmas route and have listed vintage/retro Christmas items... I've offered free shipping... I've lowered my prices and yet nothing. When times like these happen, I always tell myself that I've had enough and that it is time to hang up the eBay hat for awhile. Maybe I've lost my touch, maybe my "eye" for things has grown cold, or maybe there is just a dry spell at my local thrift stores and estate sales. I still consider myself a newbie at this reselling business, so I am constantly learning. Having dry spells is one of the processes of learning, albeit an unhappy one.

So what can us resellers do when the sales run dry? First, take a look at your inventory. What are you buying and how much are you paying for it? Spending money to make money is always a risky business. For me, spending $5 on one item is a huge bargain but to others this $5 could be chump change. I always think of it as "If I buy one item for $5, how much profit can I expect to make? Is this profit more than if I bought five items for $1 a piece?"

Second, don't buy everything in sight. It is super tempting to load up a shopping basket or cart at Goodwill in the hopes of flipping for a profit. There is that adrenaline rush when you think of all of the bids that could start over an item. Do your research by taking your items to a non busy part of the store and look up each piece as best as you can. You must remember though that mobile eBay does not show all of the solds/completeds. This needs to be kept in mind when you are searching for something and nothing is coming up... chances are that if you bring up the same search on a desktop, you will get some hits. Again, compare the asking price to what your selling price will be.

Third, have a good attitude. This one I am constantly reminding myself of. If you don't a great item in one store, who knows what could be waiting for you at the next thrift shop you walk into. There is good stuff out there, sometimes sitting on the shelves for months and other times it is that item that has just been put on display that morning. Positivity goes a long way - think that you are going to find that $100 profit item and you just might!

Who Gives a Hoot ~ Reselling Retro Owl Patio Lights

There are many different sources to gain stock from when looking to resell on eBay or Etsy. Some choose only garage sales while others are thrift store junkies. I like to visit and shop from all sources, whether it be a thrift store, estate sale, or flea market.

A few minutes drive from my job is a fairly new "junkers" store. It is kind of a mish mosh of an estate sale, thrift store, and flea market. The owner gathers all of his stock from a plethora of sources. He does estate clean outs, store clean outs, and even advertises for people to dump off their unsold yard sale items at his store for free. How convenient that he wants to take stuff off of their hands!

Pricing is pretty simple with a color coded system. Colored dots represent a specific cost, ranging from 75 cents up to $10, and then some prices are as marked. The store carries a wide variety of items from actual antiques to shelves full of cereal and kitchen cleaners. Some of the stuff that is posted for sale is actual junk - broken and severely chipped items, damaged goods, etc. There are other items that are fairly nice but priced high and thus not good for someone looking to resell. I know that the owner sells on eBay because I have heard him discuss with his fellow employees about items that he has placed on eBay and how much cash he is bringing in.

Keeping this fact in mind, when I shop at this "junkers outlet" in the hopes of finding items to resell, I try to look for things that he perhaps overlooked. Owning a store and doing clean outs takes up a considerable amount of time, so I get into the mind frame of finding the smaller, inconspicuous items that could have been overlooked but could still make a profit.

A few weeks after Halloween I stopped in before work to see if there was anything new on the shelves and if Christmas stock was being put out yet. I ventured to the holiday section and to my surprise, found an overlooked treasure. In a plastic container sitting amongst the Halloween items was a set of seven blow mold owl lights, the kind that were/are popular for patios and RVs. The container also had a set of seven packaged light bulbs and the electric cord that held the lights. I thought for sure that these were going to be priced over $10, considering that the store owner is an eBay seller. I was sticker shocked when the colored dot on the owls corresponded with the $3 dot. A quick look on eBay left me with little to consider - the owl lights were now going home with me.

There were plenty of sold owl lights on eBay, along with auctions and Buy It Now options that were currently running. Most of the owl sets were the red, greens, and darker blues while the set I had were of a pastel color. Taking a look at the ending bids for those that had sold in the past month, I decided to start mine at a price that seemed comparable with the starting bids of others: $28.50. Within a day, I already had a bidder and it was nothing but up from there!

During the bidding war, I actually had 4 buyers that set up automatic bidding (you can only view this after the sale is complete). I was happy with getting the starting bid but even more thrilled when the auction ended with the winning bidder paying $53!! After fees were deducted, I ended up banking a profit of $41.92. Not bad at all for a $3 investment!



I felt a little tinge of satisfaction that I was able to flip this item that Mr. Junker didn't see the value in. This goes to show you that people in the reselling business - including myself - cannot know everything about everything. These owls were an easy flip and Mr. Junker could easily have listed them on eBay and made more than the $3 that I purchased them for. However, his loss was my gain and that's how it is in the reselling business.

We all have a niche and have been able to fine tune our eyes to spot the treasure amidst the trash. However,  we all pass by objects sitting on shelves that are just glowing with dollar signs and profits to be made because we don't know - or haven't yet learned - certain maker's marks, specific rare toys, and silverware patterns. That is one of the best parts about this reselling business: We can learn! We can research, study, and get to know what can make us a profit so that we aren't glancing over valuable objects as we peruse the thrift store shelves.

~ Flea Fact ~

Give a hoot & research! Dedicate a few hours a week to searching on eBay for hot selling items, learn about a specific glass company, research a toy manufacturer. Learn a little about a lot and watch your profits come flying in!

80s on Ebay - Vintage Care Bear Figures

I am a child of the 80s, born in 1982 and loved every minute of growing up during that time. Better music, better cartoons, and kids could be kids. When I see the cartoons of today, I miss such classics as the Muppet Babies, Punky Brewster, My Little Ponies, and the list continues.

Selling 80s nostalgia on eBay can bring in big bucks, especially in regards to toys. I fortunately still have almost all of my toys from the 80s... well, some readers might not see that as a fortunate thing, but I see it is a time capsule. I am slowly but surely going through my childhood toys, selling them here & there. I love sifting through eBay and see toys that I had or still have bringing in money.

Why do the 80s sell on eBay? I believe, and the same could be said for other times, that people want for what they no longer have. Girls that are my age that are having children want the original version of their toys that have long been tossed out by their parents or lost in the move from home to their own place. Why have the new, cheap versions when the originals are out there and ready for the bidding?

Being a child of the 80s, you get to know what could and will be considered collector or money makers on eBay. In the male realm, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Star Wars are hot items. For females, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and Care Bears are big largely because the newer versions do not hold a handle to the originals.

So, I am always on the lookout for any original character toys, clothes, or other items from the 80s. At one of my usual thrift store haunts, I walked to the back of the store and decided to take a look at the toy section. Often times I skip the toys at this particular thrift store, if only because they usually aren't in the best condition and I rarely find anything of good quality. Skimming the bottom rack, my eyes fell upon a bag of... could it be... yes, it was! A bag of vintage 1980s Care Bear figures!

I picked up the bag and recognized them as the early 1980s poseable Care Bear figures. I had these as a child and still have a couple of which my little cousin now call her own. Looking through the bag, I counted around 20 or so, all in good condition with only needing a little wash to clean up some smudges of dirt. Finding a bag of vintage Care Bears was lucky and my luck continued as the colored sticker on the bag was today's color for 40% off. I ended up paying a little over $7 for the entire bag.

 

I headed home with my find and started the search on eBay. I had to decide whether I wanted to sell all 20some of them in a lot or if piecing them out would make more profits. Searching through current and sold listings, it became obvious that the Care Bear Cousins needed to be sold separately. Care Bear Cousins were an extension of the Care Bears, including animals that were not strictly bears. 

Lotsa Heart Elephant was listed as an individual listing. Others had sold in the range of $15 to $25, so I knew I could get a decent amount by selling him separately. The winning bid for this little elephant? $18.50 with free shipping. Cozy Heart Penguin was also listed individually. She brought in $15.66, also with free shipping. With the selling of just two of the figures, I had already gotten back the $7 that I spent.

I had listed Swift Heart Rabbit individually as well, but had no bids. So, I decided to list the last three of the Care Bear cousins together. Gentle Heart Lamb, Bright Heart Raccoon, and Swift Heart Rabbit were sold as a lot. The winning bid brought in $20.50.

  After selling the 5 Care Bear Cousins, I had 20 Care Bear figures left. I went back to eBay to begin searching to get an estimation of what I could sell the remaining bears for. Could I have pieced them out and sold them in lots of 3 and 4? Most likely, but I didn't feel like going through the extent of taking pictures and doing multiple listings. So, I found current auctions that were asking for over $200 and other auctions in the $70 range. I chose $100 and free shipping, thinking that this was never going to get any bidders. Wrong. On the last day of the sale, pretty much in the last 30minutes of the sale, someone bought the bears for $100 with free shipping. I was so excited!

In the end, after taking out fees and shipping, I made around $100 on a $7 investment. At times I question as to how much more money I could have gotten if I listed all 25 together... maybe I could have sold them $200... or what if I had waited until Christmas to sell? Maybe I could have brought in even more money. But, you can't second guess everything that you sell on eBay. I made a great profit on a nice item and I was happy.

80s are great eBay money makers. Something as simple as Care Bear figures are wanted items and when they are in good condition, make great sales. So, be on the look out for those nostalgic pieces, do your research, and enjoy bringing back memories! Care Bear Stare!