Keys to making money at eBay.

My favorite thing about selling on eBay is the fact that the start up cost is so small. Everyone already has a computer, pretty much, and the ability to take pictures. One can start in their own closet and not have to pay anything until they sell.
Keeping shipping cost low:

If you want to make money you’ve got to figure out a way to keep your shipping cost low. I did a post HERE about just how to do that but here are some quick tips.
1. Buy large envelopes from somewhere like Sam’s Club. Borrow a card or go with a friend if you need to. 

You can get enough to last a while for around $10. When I started out I used paper bags from the grocery store and wrapped it in that. I got some annoying tape that worked for around $1 at Walmart. Or you can get a huge package for around $12 at Sams.

2. Ship priority if it is over 13 oz. This will save you lots. If it is a huge item you can ship regional priority or just priority shipping rates. This will save you more than if you ship Parcel post and get there ages faster!
If you ship books send them Media mail. Only thing you can send media mail is books but it only cost 1/2 the price.
3. See if you can put a box at your library or church, or school where people can put their one-sided-printed out scrap paper. This will cost you nothing and give you the one side you need to print your labels on. I get some from a community college lab and it last me forever! Its green, reusing, and best of all, saving you lots of money!
4. Once you’ve picked through you closet start checking out the local goodwill or even better, a locally owned thrift store. Mine is called Quality Thrift and has killer deals! They have 99 cent clothing on Mondays, 3 clothing items for 99 cent days on Tuesday, 1/2 off for seniors on Wednesday, miscellaneous items 99 cents on Thursday. Take whatever you’ve earned and start investing it slowly. You’ve got to learn what sells for you. I find Ann Taylor items all the time and sell them, a fellow eBayer just can’t seem to get them off his shelf when he post them. Sometimes Target brand will sell as soon as I post it. Other times it never sells. EBay doesn’t always make sense, but you do have to figure how it is going to work for you.
MyDearTrash is a great resource for finding what sells. If you look in their archives or click here, you can you can get the information. The more recent post are about their physical store and craigslist sales but the older post are very helpful.

Buying with tags

I went to a new opening of a goodwill store near our house last week and it was packed! I was just nosing around when I found this:

These tummy control leggings are pricing. The tag said $30 and I was shocked that they sell for over $20 on ebay.

I sold them that week for Buy It Now of $23.69.

I’m not sure these would be worth much without a tag but the tummy control really sells well!

 

Jar openers- who’d-a-thought!

 

I’ve heard that getting high is a huge thrill the first time and the following times are never as good. But people keep going back for more trying to reach that first high feeling. And no, I’m not trying to say “somebody” and mean myself…I know what you were thinking!

The neighborhood garage sale about a mile from our neighborhood is just like that. The first year I went to it was when my amazing in-laws were visiting and the kids woke up so early I decided to try to keep the house as quiet as possible and let everyone sleep. So I hoped in the car with them and headed toward any nearby garage sales I could find.

Lucky me. There was a neighborhood garage sale!

I found this kid chair for $3 right off and snagged it!

I liked it so much I later got 2 adult chairs that were the same kind. It is a $15 chair at Target.

The same time I got 2 pairs of kid Crocs for $1 each that came with those buttons that insert in the croc holes. Those shoes made it through 2 of my kids before I lost one of each.

It is a sad story.

I also got a $10 100% wood bunk bed for  the kids at this sale. Amazing.

I was almost done when I rolled past a lady who was selling pots and pans. She sold me a whole set of stainless pots, lids and all for $7.

Yes. $7 for the set! She was upgrading to Rachael Ray pans.

Fine by me! “Yes ma’am! I wasn’t looking to buy pans but I will take your $148.49 like new pans off you hands and teach myself how to cook on stainless steel right away!”

My mom-in-law heard she had another set and we raced back to get her a set of red pans (She loves red) for $10ish. Lets make the whole family happy!

Well the last few years since then I’ve been able to catch the sale by random chance. I don’t drive by that neighborhood but have checked Craigslist at just the right weekends. This year I thought I had missed it but they moved it back a month and I was able to catch it last weekend.

Once again, shooting for that high…and missing. But it wasn’t all loss. I found this Professional Jar opener and actually walked away from the $4 price tag then looked it up on my phone! Wowsers! People pay that much for those things?

I could tell by the price tag they had no idea how much it was worth. So I talked her down to $3 (you know…what if it doesn’t sell?) and tucked the enormous jar opener under my arm and headed out.

It sold. Well it is selling. I have several watchers and one bid $45 with $10 shipping. It is about $10 less then the going price for these but I’d be happy as pie if it sold for $55. And that’s still about 1/2 price for the buyer. Did I mention it’s never been out of the box?

Boy howdy!

I also snagged this to possibly resell:

It was a kid’s 1st garage sell.

He was about five and wasn’t going to budge from the $2 tag he’d put on this.

It was starting to rain and my hubby and kids had made a run home and so I was on foot. Not interested in hauling this around in the rain

…well, for $1 I was but not for $2.

His mom talked him down and that little mister made his first sale!

The thing retails for $99 on amazon but doesn’t really resale unless you have a lot of cartridges. Glad I stuck with the $1 price! My kids will get that much out of it.

I also got this for $1:

We are working with my 4 year old on saying, “Yes ma’am” instead of “But mom,” or “Well….”

This ended up being his prize for going a whole day with out using “well” or “but”. Today was the day! And awesomely enough, though it didn’t have a car that sold with it, one of my son’s little friends had given him the very car that went with this. It was buried in the sandbox but after a bid of digging and dusting this racetrack is now the largest source of entertainment in our house!

Amazing how the boys seem to have all the cool toys right?

Oh, and it sells on Amazon new for $99. Sweet!

All in all I spent about $20 and I’ve already got a bid for $55. I’d say that’s a happy garage sale day, right there!

Round up! May

 

This was a very cool skirt that I bought for 99 cents because it had a fancy tag. Yep. That is the only reason.  Well, and because Free People just SOUNDS like a brand people would want.

It had a lot of interest at it’s original price of $21 but I had to knock it down to $13 before it sold. I had an offer of $10 and I’m glad I held out. $3 isn’t much but it is at least enough to cover shipping. After eBay fees and all I made $7.02 on this skirt.

 

For the most part I do free shipping. But every once-in-a-while I try adding shipping and knocking the price down. People love the orange “Free shipping” but in the same way they love saying, “I got these for $6.99. It is a win-win!

I mad $7.09 on those Old Navy slacks. I like to make about $10 per item. I think my advrage right now is $7.27 but I’m also cleaning out my drawers so I’m not sweating it too much.

This blazer I got for 99 cents because it was so eye catching. I didn’t even put the brand in the title because it wasn’t a very well known brand: Rafaella Petites.

It was on ebay for sometime before it got a bid and I made $5.81. Not the best but better than being in my closet. And I’m sure she will love it seeing as it is such a cute thing!

Wranglers-Spanglers. I am trying my hand at name brand jeans. Mostly Wranglers and Levi. The first week they sold REALLY well and I bought some more and they stopped. I feel like its like gambling. I got hooked and now I’m loosing!

However these jeans were a great deal for whoever bought them!

And I made $5.57 off them. No biggie but money in the bank none-the-less!

I was excited to see this TAILS brand tennis outfit for sale for only 99 cents for the set! It wasn’t til I got home that I realized the size difference in the skirt and the top.

Thankfully, one can sell pretty much anything in any size on ebay! I made $9.17 on this outfit.

Nice slacks are always in style!

Advantages to Living in the City. Free Mulch!!

This weekend  my husband is switching from his old work truck to his newer work truck, so this week I have a truck I can haul stuff in! I have been franticly trying to remember all those, “If only I had a truck,” Moments.

Unfortunately most of these moments are unplanned. But getting free mulch from our fair city’s Greenwaste dump is one of those things.

Usually, we have a truck full of the hubby’s tools so it isn’t worth unloading and then loading when I need a truck, it but not this time!

The greenwaste dump was supervised by a bunch of 60+ yr old men who drive heavy equipment and under their hard expressions I sense that they really enjoy their job!

Our pile of mulch! We could take whatever we wanted! Of course the 3 kids went with me, the workers didn’t seem to mind so it turned out great.

I was happy that the piles of mulch I wanted to get from was far away from the bulldozers and trucks unloading tree branches. One less thing to worry about when hauling kids around! I wasn’t sure if they would even let the kids out of the truck. As it was we just got in trouble for climbing up the mound!

 

Let me tell you. When a guy in a bulldozer tells you something, you listen to it!

So the kids settled for eating snacks while I loaded up the truck.

It went something like this:

Scoop, Scoop

“Mom! Sister needs to go Potty!”

Pause, take Sister potty behind the truck.

Scoop, Scoop

“Ouch! I got something in my eye, mommy?!”

“Then blink a bunch!”

Scoop, Scoop, Scoop

“HEY MOM! LOOK! I got the door of the truck open all by myself!”

“Good job, Son!”

Scoop

“MOM! Can you come shut the door?”

“Ok but don’t climb all over daddy’s new truck and get it dirty.”

Scoop Sco…

“Mom! Can we take our shoes off and then climb on the seats?”

Scoop, Scoop, Scoop

“Mom! Sister needs to got poopy!”

Now THAT is a problem!

 

Somehow, I’m not sure how, but somehow the kids and I got the truck loaded in about 40ish minutes. I stopped loading when I started thinking about how hard it might be to get this out of the camper shell. Usually they just load you with the bulldozer but with the shell on I had to hand shovel it. 

Part 1 of Mission Mulch accomplished!!!

If anyone wants some HUGE logs this is the place to get them!

 

Here is my City “Wheelbarrow” It worked great!

 

And these are my helpers!

And great helpers they are!

 

Here is the flowerbed!

Then it was time to do the garden!  I’ve been using grass clippings as mulch but this will last much longer!

After.

 

 

Summer is here!

 

Ebay seems to change weekly with the amount of sales I pull in during the week. It certainly keeps me on my toes!

I had this jacket for sometime before posting it. It was completely lined and, believe it or not very, very white! I was happy with my sale after spending 99 cents on this.

 

Maternity clothing seems to almost always sell, but sometimes it takes a while. Maternity dresses ALWAYS sell for me. Even the ugly one’s. Last year I was pregnant so I’d go through and grab things I thought I might like. that way I could try them on and sell them if they didn’t fit. this dress was 99 cents.

 

I was debating this dress even though it was only 99 cents. It is a target brand. But then I saw the tags! What a steal for me and for the buyer!

 

I was just happy to get rid of this suit! I’ve heard that build a bear sells well but this was on my ebay for a while before it sells. Maybe I was asking too much. It was free so it wasn’t a big deal, and I still made a little.

 

 

I saw this book at a garage sale and I paid around $1 for it.

 

Once again, Maternity dress!

 

I now offer free shipping and just raised my prices to make up for it. I like the results and now my item’s are pulled up when one searches for free listings!

 

I had this for sell for about 4 weeks before suddenly it had 5 bids!

Making money highchair purchase!

 

Remember my highchair purchase? It was really a impulse buy, well, as impulse as you can be when buying on Craigslist!

Within 2 hours of thinking, “hmmm, I could use a highchair” I had the highchair in my car with a free stroller, and was heading home!

I cleaned up the stroller and wondered what to do with it. I thought about saving it for my brother in Guatemala's little boy but they won’t be back to visit for a year and I think they could borrow my umbrella stroller just as easy!

So I decided to sell it in my yard sale. I stuck a $20 tag on it then went down to $15 when no one really looked at it.

I ended up selling it for $12 to someone who really needed it ending my $10 highchair purchase with a $2 profit! AND someone got a great deal on a really, really nice stroller! (Not to mention I still have my highchair!)