Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[disneysteve]

You're probably at the hospital right now. I hope your wife's surgery went smoothly. I prayed God keeps you both in good health

Her surgery was last Wednesday, 12/7. All went well. She was in the hospital until Monday evening and is home recovering now. Thanks for the good thoughts.

[disneysteve]

I love the sales of the really mundane items, the kind that most resellers totally ignore. I went to an estate sale on Wednesday and one thing I bought was an old box of Rolodex cards. There were 7 sealed packs of 100 cards each. I paid under $12. I listed them that night and someone bought them all this morning for $86. My profit after fees and shipping and purchase price is about $52. It was particularly funny because when I got home and showed my wife what I bought that day, she said, "you buy the strangest things". That's true, but strange is what sells. I love getting the things like that while everyone else is swarming over the video games and vinyl records and designer bags and other well-known stuff.

[disneysteve]

I actually had another Marketplace sale today which is great. MP has been dead for me for a while so I'm glad to have made 2 sales recently. Today's was a boxed set of Mikasa crystal angel figurines which I also had listed on ebay (yes I ended that listing). Paid $10 at a recent estate sale. Sold for $50. And no fees on MP. The buyer was thrilled to have found them. It really is a beautiful set and I'm sure the original price was a lot more than $50.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Sold this ebike just now for $375 on Craigslist posted 2 days ago (the guy paid $380 in all twenties, I gave him back an extra twenty, I expected him to negotiate down to maybe $340 but he paid full price). Just ordered a new one for $619 from eBay with free shipping. My philosophy is don't wait until the wheels fall off and sell while it's still good.
VIVI 26 Inch EBike Electric Bike 500W 48V Adults Commuting Cruiser Bicycle 22mph | eBay

[rennigade]

Bought an airdyne on marketplace for $25. Literally wiped the dust from it, listed it back on marketplace and sold it for $100 3 weeks later.

I like to flip exercise equipment and those old school Schwinn airdynes are always an easy sell, in my area anyway. I can always get $100 for it pretty quick. If I find them for $40 or less, I scoop them up. The only kicker is they do take up space until you can sell it.

[disneysteve]

Bought an airdyne on marketplace for $25. Literally wiped the dust from it, listed it back on marketplace and sold it for $100 3 weeks later.

I like to flip exercise equipment and those old school Schwinn airdynes are always an easy sell, in my area anyway. I can always get $100 for it pretty quick. If I find them for $40 or less, I scoop them up. The only kicker is they do take up space until you can sell it.

I love this. A lot of online sellers source online themselves. This is a perfect example.

I'm always baffled by how many people list something for sale with one crappy photo and say, "It just needs to be dusted." Really? You couldn't be bothered to take 30 seconds and dust it yourself before putting it up for sale? How lazy can you be? Sometimes just cleaning something and presenting it nicer with better photos and a more detailed description is all it takes to resell it for a much better price.

[disneysteve]

December 2022 and Year-End wrap up

46 sales for 60 total items (a few sales were multi-item purchases)
$1,180.34 gross
$841.09 net

Highest sale was $89. Ironically, it was for an item I got for free from the Freebie Alert app.

I said in my November wrap up that I expected December to be an off month because I was taking a week off for my wife's surgery. Clearly, that didn't matter much as I did even better in December than I did in November. Gotta love the holiday shopping season. I've actually had $536 in sales just since 12/25 so the buying didn't end with Christmas.

For 2022 overall

$13,669.39 gross
$10,127.14 net

I'm quite happy with those numbers. Way more than I expected to make.

[disneysteve]

One more ebay stat I didn't include in my last post.

For 2022, I spent $1,731.65 on items to resell.
As of 12/31/22, I had gross sales of $12,371.44 from those items.

Many of those items haven't sold yet so the ultimate total will be even higher, but that's already more than 7 times what I spent. Not a bad return on investment at all.

[Off-Grid Lover]

I love the sales of the really mundane items, the kind that most resellers totally ignore. I went to an estate sale on Wednesday and one thing I bought was an old box of Rolodex cards. There were 7 sealed packs of 100 cards each. I paid under $12. I listed them that night and someone bought them all this morning for $86. My profit after fees and shipping and purchase price is about $52. It was particularly funny because when I got home and showed my wife what I bought that day, she said, "you buy the strangest things". That's true, but strange is what sells. I love getting the things like that while everyone else is swarming over the video games and vinyl records and designer bags and other well-known stuff.

That's fantastic! I finally got back here. Became ill for a bit then just got hired on at Safeway for 24 hrs a week. Pretty excited actually, laid off during COVID and with eye disabilities, now living out in BFE in the Tahoe National Forest, there are hardly any jobs nearby. So this physical walking will help keep me in shape.

Mundane items are the best, I agree. It's a strange satisfaction when you see some oddball item others would've missed. Glad you have good Estate Sales, $52 is certainly a fantastic profit.

[Off-Grid Lover]

That's fantastic! I finally got back here. Became ill for a bit then just got hired on at Safeway for 24 hrs a week. Pretty excited actually, laid off during COVID and with eye disabilities, now living out in BFE in the Tahoe National Forest, there are hardly any jobs nearby. So this physical walking will help keep me in shape.

Mundane items are the best, I agree. It's a strange satisfaction when you see some oddball item others would've missed. Glad you have good Estate Sales, $52 is certainly a fantastic profit.

That's fantastic. Better than I did. 2022 profit equated to about $850 per mo. This is counting Mercari too

[disneysteve]

2022 profit equated to about $850 per mo. This is counting Mercari too

That's great. Glad you're feeling better and congrats on the new job.

[disneysteve]

I bought a huge lot of Lego yesterday. It will probably drive me a little nuts making sure all of the sets are complete but I'm willing to take my time and DW offered to help.

I probably slightly overpaid at $275 for the lot. However, this was from a friend and while we were in her basement, she pointed out about a dozen totes of china - mostly tea cups, saucers, and tea pots, that she was storing from a group she belongs to. They no longer need them so told her to get rid of them. She was just going to give them away. I said I would take them and give her $25 for them. I didn't even open a tote or look at any of it so it was a completely blind purchase. Heck, the totes alone are worth more than that.

Plus while I was working on the Lego, she and my wife were over in her sewing area talking about all the stuff my wife makes. The woman pulled out a bunch of fabric and batting and stuff that she didn't need anymore and my wife left with two garbage bags full of stuff.

All in all, that made the $300 I paid her well worth it even if I went a bit high on the Lego. And the Lego should bring in at least $1,000 so it's not like I won't make a nice profit.

I was chatting last night with my "Lego guy" and after looking at my pictures, he pointed out one set that goes for $175 or so. I'll focus on getting that one ready to sell first. Then there are a few other sets that are in the $50-100 range so I can hopefully make back my investment fairly quickly with just 3 or 4 sales and take my time organizing the rest which will all be profit.

And of course there is all the china to sort through and list. I'm curious to see what's hiding in there. Hopefully there's some quality stuff.

[jenn_jenn]

December 2022 and Year-End wrap up

46 sales for 60 total items (a few sales were multi-item purchases)
$1,180.34 gross
$841.09 net

Highest sale was $89. Ironically, it was for an item I got for free from the Freebie Alert app.

I said in my November wrap up that I expected December to be an off month because I was taking a week off for my wife's surgery. Clearly, that didn't matter much as I did even better in December than I did in November. Gotta love the holiday shopping season. I've actually had $536 in sales just since 12/25 so the buying didn't end with Christmas.

For 2022 overall

$13,669.39 gross
$10,127.14 net

I'm quite happy with those numbers. Way more than I expected to make.

Love this! Do you mind sharing generally how much time a week you spend on your side hustle?

Curious! And also slightly inspired!

[disneysteve]

Love this! Do you mind sharing generally how much time a week you spend on your side hustle?

Curious! And also slightly inspired!

I honestly have no idea. I really don't track it and it varies from week to week. On average, I sell 1-2 items per day so I have to pack them and take them to the post office. Packing an item can take just a couple of minutes for something simple like a DVD or video game or a bit longer for a multi-piece fragile thing. Our post office is only a mile away so round trip only takes a few minutes.

I go to at least one estate sale almost every week so that takes 2-3 hours in the morning (any time Wednesday through Sunday). Some weeks I go to 2 or 3. In season, I'll go to yard sales on Saturday mornings. I try to focus on community sales where I can hit 20 or 30 sales in one neighborhood rather than driving all over the place. I occasionally go to thrift shops but that's a very small portion of where my inventory comes from.

I have to research the items, take photos, and list them. I try to list at least a couple of items per day. Some days I do more. Some days I do none. Even on days I don't list, I may still take photos or do some research on items waiting to be listed.

The great thing about selling on ebay is you can do it totally at your own pace and find a routine and rhythm that works for you. Some people like to work on it for a couple of hours every morning. Some do it while their kids are in school or their spouse is at work. Some do it in the evening. Some go to the post office daily. Some only ship on certain days. Some have their carrier pick up packages at home and never go to the post office. Some list every day. Some only list on the weekends. There are as many different methods as there are sellers doing it.

Don't let any YouTube channels or blogs or podcasts or Instagram feeds fool you, though. Reselling isn't as easy as some of them try to make it seem. There is a lot of work involved but if it's something you enjoy doing, it's a great way to go.

[disneysteve]

I bought a huge lot of Lego yesterday.

she pointed out about a dozen totes of china

We took some of the Lego home yesterday. We went back today with 2 cars to get the rest of the Lego and as much of the china as we could.

There turned out to be 21 totes of china. I peeked in a couple of them as I was loading them and found a wide variety of quality and value. Everything from unlabeled generic stuff that probably came from the dollar store to vintage Limoges pieces from France and antique transfer ware from England. Hundreds and hundreds of individual pieces. My plan is to start by trying to debulk and pull out the worthless stuff. I'll give that away or maybe try to sell it as a lot locally. Then I can start listing the good items for sale.