Question:
Well, funny you should ask – I just posted here (above)- but just got started with ebay a few days ago!!! I listed some of my artwork that I’ve been doing recently. If you see my other post here – it’s very bright, bold, colorful, and whimsical styles with some abstract, and some caricatures. Just go to ebay.com, and click "search" then "by seller" and enter: "caseynrbq" and you’ll be brought to my listings. Enjoy! Diane.
Oh dear, another name in the Trish-Trash bin 
Gran — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Response:
my first car was a Pacer 
Bright Canary Yellow wagon :0) Could spot it a mile away! carolyn – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – :: :: So how did you all get started? Do you scour yardsales and auctions? :: Get a license and become a wholesaler? Is it best to specialize or :: be a "garage sale" type seller? :: I got started buying old license plates… I was born in 1959,and now have a 1959Iowa, where I was born,and a Kansas, where Ihave relatives then I started selling…. I had all kinds of old auto brochures I picked up from the car dealers when I was a kid….. some of the stuff went for outrageous prices. wish I had picked up 5 or 6 of each of the Chevrolet Vega,and the AMC Pacer…… 10 bucks apiece….. recently bought a ZIP drive cheap, and it works great. just listed a cellphone, brand new replacement I got yesterday….. but I stopped on the way home, and signed up with someone else…… Cingular local service stinks here….. — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Response:
declared: I’d like to hear some stories from those who ebay full time or at least far more than I do!
[snip] a lot of the "shine" is off of it due to ebays changing themselves away from auctions. but occasionally some fun bidding wars happen.
Hi, robert, sorry I’m a newbie, but what do you mean here? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -robert
Response:
declared: I’d like to hear some stories from those who ebay full time or at least far more than I do! [snip] a lot of the "shine" is off of it due to ebays changing themselves away from auctions. but occasionally some fun bidding wars happen. Hi, robert, sorry I’m a newbie, but what do you mean here?
shine, newness, fun aspect of selling on ebay. when i started every day i’d take a look and see some bidding. now it only really happens on the first and last days. robert "razor sharp memories, slash the soul to the bone. I would give everything that I am, for the simple blessing of amnesia."
Response:
declared: I’d like to hear some stories from those who ebay full time or at least far more than I do!
i started when a well known sci-fi author came to a store i was working at. at that time signed copies of his latest book was fetching 2-3 x cover price and i had a stack of em. the whole auction/bidding process was quite a rush, to get up and see how many bids things had gotten. started browsing the closed book listings (this was back when you could browse closed listings by category) to see what was selling for what price. i’ve always been into books so some of it was common sense to me. kept an eye open at thrifts when i was looking for books for myself, and often ended up buying more to sell. simutaneously i was discovering that i really dislike working for idiots. hence i now just do this, so far it’s paid the bills. a lot of the "shine" is off of it due to ebays changing themselves away from auctions. but occasionally some fun bidding wars happen. robert "razor sharp memories, slash the soul to the bone. I would give everything that I am, for the simple blessing of amnesia."
Response:
Well, funny you should ask – I just posted here (above)- but just got started with ebay a few days ago!!! I listed some of my artwork that I’ve been doing recently. If you see my other post here – it’s very bright, bold, colorful, and whimsical styles with some abstract, and some caricatures. Just go to ebay.com, and click "search" then "by seller" and enter: "caseynrbq" and you’ll be brought to my listings. Enjoy! Diane.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – :: :: So how did you all get started? Do you scour yardsales and auctions? :: Get a license and become a wholesaler? Is it best to specialize or :: be a "garage sale" type seller? :: I got started buying old license plates… I was born in 1959,and now have a 1959Iowa, where I was born,and a Kansas, where Ihave relatives then I started selling…. I had all kinds of old auto brochures I picked up from the car dealers when I was a kid….. some of the stuff went for outrageous prices. wish I had picked up 5 or 6 of each of the Chevrolet Vega,and the AMC Pacer…… 10 bucks apiece….. recently bought a ZIP drive cheap, and it works great. just listed a cellphone, brand new replacement I got yesterday….. but I stopped on the way home, and signed up with someone else…… Cingular local service stinks here….. — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Response:
:: :: So how did you all get started? Do you scour yardsales and auctions? :: Get a license and become a wholesaler? Is it best to specialize or :: be a "garage sale" type seller? :: I got started buying old license plates… I was born in 1959,and now have a 1959Iowa, where I was born,and a Kansas, where Ihave relatives then I started selling…. I had all kinds of old auto brochures I picked up from the car dealers when I was a kid….. some of the stuff went for outrageous prices. wish I had picked up 5 or 6 of each of the Chevrolet Vega,and the AMC Pacer…… 10 bucks apiece….. recently bought a ZIP drive cheap, and it works great. just listed a cellphone, brand new replacement I got yesterday….. but I stopped on the way home, and signed up with someone else…… Cingular local service stinks here….. — Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Response:
they see your auction. I’ve had spectacular failures with things I know nothing about, including sports cards and Pez dispensers, so I’m pretty confident that a hit-or-miss approach will yield more misses than hits.
I think this is the problem I’ve been having with my ebay sales, some of the things I get are hit and miss since I get things from secondhand and garage sales. I come across things I know about too infrequently to make a real income. The things I do know about are sold for three times what i paid, sometimes more, but in the end, with all the ‘misses’, it all evens out to me making about 10 bucks an hour. Maybe this is why people eventually give up and get regular 10$ jobs that has perks like pretty coworkers with nice round bubble butts. There are a few things i’d love to buy regularly on ebay, but getting them at a cheaper price seems like it would be difficult. And than, once someone figures out your widgets are doing really well, won’t they just get widgets and underprice you? Well, like any business, I guess you have to diversify and always stay one step ahead of the game.
Response:
shows that you can’t be too ambiguous So how did you all get started? Do you scour yardsales and auctions? Get a license and become a wholesaler? Is it best to specialize or be a "garage sale" type seller?
I got started strictly as a buyer. One day I discovered I couldn’t find my Robert Heinlein books, and I found I could get them in odd lots on eBay. I ended up going a little crazy, investing a few thousand dollars total in each of the pulp magazines in which Heinlein’s stories originally appeared, autographed copies, etc. Eventually, I had four or five of everything and began upgrading my copies to copies in better condition. I noticed that lots of Heinlein paperbacks were routinely going for $4.00 per book (this was before half.com), so I began buying lots for resale. Before I knew it, I was making a good part of my living buying and reselling Heinlein books. Half.com came along and put an end to that. I sold technical and computer books for awhile, and even managed to sell 30-40 books and CDs a week during the early days of half.com About that time I found a mint Atari 2600 in box at Goodwill and discovered that they were going for $100 on eBay. For a year or so, my income came from buying "motherload" lots of Atari 2600 (eight or nine untested units in a bunch), fixing them up, and reselling them on eBay. I also sold related Atari computers and accessories, too. The bottom dropped out of that market, too 18 months ago. Now I am selling electronic widgets that I buy on close-out directly from importers or manufacturers for around 60 cents each, and then resell for upwards of $15.00. The key to these is fijnding things available for a tiny fraction of their original wholesale price, then figuring out a use for them that hasn’t been tried before. For a long time I sold odd little connectors that I bought from Radio Shack for $3.00 and sold to people who didn’t know such a thing existed for $12.00. When these proved to be a success, I began importing them myself for 60 cents and raised my price to $15.00. You’ll notice that none of these involve going to garage or estate sales. I’ve done that bit a lot, but it’s difficult for me to get around, and the profit margins weren’t as good. If you know how to find stuff on eBay that is undervalued, or to which you can add value at low cost (e.g. clean and polish an Atari with Armor-All, add new joysticks and power supply, then write a set-up instruction manual to turn a $10 investment into a $120 game system) you can even source your products on eBay. Whether you’re getting your stuff from garage sales or another source, the important thing is to look for things to sell that you know very, very well (so you can spot the bargains and pinpoint the potential markets), then give some thought to selling these in a new way to people who will say, "Wow, I wish I’d known this was available!" when they see your auction. I’ve had spectacular failures with things I know nothing about, including sports cards and Pez dispensers, so I’m pretty confident that a hit-or-miss approach will yield more misses than hits.
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’d like to do more on ebay, for extra income. I work full time but have some debts I’d like to be shed of, and well ebay is just fun I have a rating of 350 right now, and have been a member for over 5 years so as you can tell…not too many auctions a month. I have one negative from back in 98..kinda silly now that I look back at it! So how did you all get started? Do you scour yardsales and auctions? Get a license and become a wholesaler? Is it best to specialize or be a "garage sale" type seller? Also, what type of tools if any are good to keep–like excell spreadsheets or special programs to keep up with what you have going on? I’d like to hear some stories from those who ebay full time or at least far more than I do! Thanks in advance! Carolyn
My wife and I had a couple of booths at antique malls. I tried listing things on eBay, and found that although the final sales price on eBay tended to be lower on most items than what I’d get in a mall, the turnover was incredibly greater, and my net profits much greater. We eventually pulled out of malls, and sold entirely on eBay. It has numerous advantages, much lower fixed overhead, so if it’s a slow month for selling I can afford to just stop for a while and continue when prices get better. Can’t do that in a mall with a lease, they want the rent whether you sell anything or not. Breakage is less of a problem, you don’t have someone letting their 4 year old grab things off the shelf, and then have them put them back quickly when they drop something. I’m not a huge volume seller by any means, but I’ve been a member since 1998, and I’ve sold well over 2500 lots on eBay, and I’ve sold a fair amount of merchandise off eBay to customers who I met through eBay sales. As for merchandise sources, some of it comes from auctions, some from estate sales, some from flea markets, some from other sources. Richard Ward
Response:
I’d like to do more on ebay, for extra income. I work full time but have some debts I’d like to be shed of, and well ebay is just fun I have a rating of 350 right now, and have been a member for over 5 years so as you can tell…not too many auctions a month. I have one negative from back in 98..kinda silly now that I look back at it! So how did you all get started? Do you scour yardsales and auctions? Get a license and become a wholesaler? Is it best to specialize or be a "garage sale" type seller? Also, what type of tools if any are good to keep–like excell spreadsheets or special programs to keep up with what you have going on? I’d like to hear some stories from those who ebay full time or at least far more than I do! Thanks in advance! Carolyn
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -I’d like to do more on ebay, for extra income. I work full time but have some debts I’d like to be shed of, and well ebay is just fun I have a rating of 350 right now, and have been a member for over 5 years so as you can tell…not too many auctions a month. I have one negative from back in 98..kinda silly now that I look back at it! So how did you all get started? Do you scour yardsales and auctions? Get a license and become a wholesaler? Is it best to specialize or be a "garage sale" type seller? Also, what type of tools if any are good to keep–like excell spreadsheets or special programs to keep up with what you have going on? I’d like to hear some stories from those who ebay full time or at least far more than I do!
I started out just smoking a little marijuana and the next thing I knew I was selling on eBay. Seriously, I started out as a buyer (Nov 07, 1997) and moved into selling a little bit. I still do about 60 percent buying and 40 percent selling I’d say. I’m a collector of various things as is my wife and eBay is an absolute godsend in that regard! TS This Message is: *TOTALLY APPROVED* BY ABSOLUTE AUTOCRATIC COMMAND OF O.C. & STIGGS WHILE DRUNK
If you like this post and would like to receive updates from this blog, please subscribe our feed.