Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[disneysteve]

February 2023 wrap up

41 sales, several of which were for multiple items
$1,041.30 gross
$654.10 net

I also did $102 gross/$77 net on Facebook Marketplace. That's where I'm primarily selling the china that I got last month.

That makes the totals for the month:
$1,143.30 gross
$731.10 net

I'm happy with these numbers. The LEGO has done well. I've sold 18 sets for $663 gross. I paid $275 for everything. I still have 8 sets listed and about 10-12 more to complete and get listed. And the china has turned out okay too. Paid $25 and have sold $102 so far. I have a few of the better teapots listed on ebay but no sales there yet. I'm planning to have a yard sale in the spring and hopefully can move a lot of the china then.

[disneysteve]

It's not quite time for my March post yet but I wanted to give a little update.

I hadn't been to an estate sale since before Christmas because I was busy working my way through the large LEGO and china lots I purchased in early January. But I started going to the sales again last week. On Thursday, I went to a sale and bought 8 items for a total of $210. There were 4 Danbury Mint football figurines at $50 each. I listed them all that night. Friday morning, I sold the most valuable of them for $499, so $50 to $499 in under 24 hours. On Saturday, I sold another one for $135. I've still got 2 more listed that will go for about $100 each and then 4 other items that I bought that day, but I'm already well ahead just from the two sales.

I've now sold 20 LEGO sets from that lot for a total of $804 (I paid $275 for all). There are still numerous sets listed and about 10 more sets that I haven't gone through yet.

I've made a couple of nice bulk sales of the china on Marketplace, one for $150 and one for $80. I also sold a single item, a teapot, on ebay for $80. I paid $25 for all of it and have grossed $426 so far.

I'll post my March totals in a few days.

[disneysteve]

March 2023 wrap up

Ebay:
$1,185.76 gross
$802.86 net

Marketplace:
$230.00 gross and net

Total:
$1,415.76 gross
$1,032.86 net

This month really reinforced both how flexible and lucrative ebay can be (and Marketplace). I totally expected it to be an off month. My wife was in the hospital for 2 weeks and I had my ebay sales turned off for 12 days. I figured I wouldn't hit my $500 profit goal and I was fine with that. Instead, I had one of my best months even though I was only actively selling for 19 of 31 days.

I logged my third highest sale ever in March at $499 (for an item that cost me $50 and sold in under 24 hours).

[james.hendrickson]

Disneysteve, this looks like its been a good side gig for you for a while.

Lets say that someone wanted to try buying and selling on ebay. What would be a good way for them to start?

[disneysteve]

Disneysteve, this looks like its been a good side gig for you for a while.

It definitely is. I made over $10,000 profit in 2022. For anyone looking to supplement their income, boost savings, pay off debt, or whatever, it's a great option.

Lets say that someone wanted to try buying and selling on ebay. What would be a good way for them to start?

The first thing to do is to take some time to learn the basics of how ebay works. How to list things. How to ship things. How the fees work. That sort of thing.

Then, start by selling things that you already have. Everyone has stuff in their closets or drawers or basement or garage that they don't need. Stuff you don't use anymore. Toys the kids don't play with anymore. Things you got as gifts but never even opened. Things you bought and never got around to returning. Whatever. Don't start buying things to resell until you've gotten the hang of it with stuff that doesn't cost you anything.

Once you have a few sales under your belt and feel generally comfortable with the process, you can start buying for resale. Use the tools available to research items before you buy them to see if they are worth buying. The ebay app, Terapeak which is the research section of the ebay website, and Google Lens are all free resources to see what items are worth and how well they sell.

You also want to keep great records from day one. Cost of items, sale price, expenses (postage, ebay fees, shipping supplies, mileage, equipment, etc.). You need to report your ebay income at tax time and those records will help you take the maximum deductions you qualify for and limit your taxable profit.

Join some of the reseller Facebook groups. There are several good ones where people can answer any questions that arise, walk you through various issues you may encounter, and generally provide support.

[disneysteve]

Lets say that someone wanted to try buying and selling on ebay. What would be a good way for them to start?

One thing I forgot in my earlier reply: Sell what you know. The best place to start selling is with stuff you have knowledge about. It doesn't matter if it's coins or musical instruments or baseball cards or auto parts or whatever. If there is some area that you are well versed in, that's usually the best place to start selling. When I started as a reseller back in the 80s, I sold Disney memorabilia because that's what I knew. I was an active collector and very tuned in to the Disney market. Over the years, I expanded my knowledge base and I now sell all kinds of things, plus I'm more comfortable buying something I'm relatively unfamiliar with if I have a decent sense that it's worth a lot more than I'm paying, but that's not something a newbie should be doing.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

It definitely is. I made over $10,000 profit in 2022. For anyone looking to supplement their income, boost savings, pay off debt, or whatever, it's a great option.


The first thing to do is to take some time to learn the basics of how ebay works. How to list things. How to ship things. How the fees work. That sort of thing.

Then, start by selling things that you already have. Everyone has stuff in their closets or drawers or basement or garage that they don't need. Stuff you don't use anymore. Toys the kids don't play with anymore. Things you got as gifts but never even opened. Things you bought and never got around to returning. Whatever. Don't start buying things to resell until you've gotten the hang of it with stuff that doesn't cost you anything.

Once you have a few sales under your belt and feel generally comfortable with the process, you can start buying for resale. Use the tools available to research items before you buy them to see if they are worth buying. The ebay app, Terapeak which is the research section of the ebay website, and Google Lens are all free resources to see what items are worth and how well they sell.

You also want to keep great records from day one. Cost of items, sale price, expenses (postage, ebay fees, shipping supplies, mileage, equipment, etc.). You need to report your ebay income at tax time and those records will help you take the maximum deductions you qualify for and limit your taxable profit.

Join some of the reseller Facebook groups. There are several good ones where people can answer any questions that arise, walk you through various issues you may encounter, and generally provide support.

How do you sell toys and stuff? How hard is it to ship? Is it expensive? Does Ebay/Amazon/Marketplace have a good idea of pricing for shipping?

I've found a lot of success selling on marketplace just to get ride of stuff and be happy to make a few bucks off of it. Which by the way I sold my playset for $200 last week. Paid $1000 for it in 2017. Kids loved it in the pandemic. We used it and were happy but they are too big now.

I bet I could do $1000 in a month even after selling it if I had to come up with my Baby EF like Dave Ramsey Says. I wouldn't work but I'd sell stuff in my house.

[disneysteve]

How do you sell toys and stuff? How hard is it to ship? Is it expensive? Does Ebay/Amazon/Marketplace have a good idea of pricing for shipping?

If you’re going to do it, you need a scale. You can get a really good one on Amazon for under $25. Then start saving boxes every time you get one. Also ask friends and neighbors to save them for you. Same for packing materials like bubble wrap and packing paper. The only thing you need to buy is tape.

You put the item in the box you’ll use, add some packing, and get the weight and dimensions. Plug that into your eBay listing and choose “calculated shipping” so buyer pays based on their location. It’s very simple. I do it differently but that’s based on years of experience, not a system I’d recommend for someone new.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

If you’re going to do it, you need a scale. You can get a really good one on Amazon for under $25. Then start saving boxes every time you get one. Also ask friends and neighbors to save them for you. Same for packing materials like bubble wrap and packing paper. The only thing you need to buy is tape.

You put the item in the box you’ll use, add some packing, and get the weight and dimensions. Plug that into your eBay listing and choose “calculated shipping” so buyer pays based on their location. It’s very simple. I do it differently but that’s based on years of experience, not a system I’d recommend for someone new.

you price shipping differently?

[disneysteve]

you price shipping differently?

There are 3 choices when selecting shipping on an ebay listing.
1. Free shipping
2. Calculated shipping
3. Flat rate shipping

1. Free shipping doesn't exist. It's a marketing gimmick. Shipping isn't free. This just means the seller has included the shipping cost in the price of the item. Instead of listing for $20+$5 shipping, they list for $25 with "free" shipping. It targets customers who are bad at math. The only time I use it is with books and DVDs which are going Media Mail where I know exactly what the cost will be regardless of where the buyer lives.

2. Calculated shipping is what I described above. You pack the item as it will be shipped. You enter the weight and box dimensions in the listing and ebay will automatically show potential buyers how much shipping will be to their location. As a seller, this protects you from undercharging if you're in Florida and the buyer ends up being in Hawaii or you're in Los Angeles and the buyer is in Maine. I use this option on larger packages where distance can make a huge difference. This is the preferred method for new sellers because you can't screw it up. As long as you enter the weight and dimensions correctly, the buyer will pay you the correct amount to ship to them.

3. Flat rate shipping is where you just give one shipping price and everyone pays it regardless of where they live. This is what I do on most of my listings, but this takes some experience and a good sense of weights and dimensions. I don't pre-pack my items. I weigh the item itself and then add an estimated amount for the box and packing materials and base my price on that. I generally use California as my estimate since I'm in NJ. If shipping to CA is $12.95, I might charge $11.00. If the package goes anywhere closer, I break even or come out ahead. If it does go to CA, I may be a dollar or two behind. I sell enough volume that it balances out. For 2022, my actual postage paid was $105 less than what I charged, so pretty close to even. I do not recommend this method for people just starting out as it requires knowledge that a new user just doesn't have yet.

[disneysteve]

2022 was the first year in about 20 that I was seriously reselling on a regular basis. I didn't exactly start at 100% on 1/1/22 but still, I thought I'd check back and compare 1st quarter of this year to 1st quarter of last year.

2022: 1st quarter sales = $1,614.99
2023: 1st quarter sales = $3,648.24

The later quarters will be a better year to year comparison as by April 2022 I was more fully into it so it will be interesting to see how this year compares.

[disneysteve]

I updated my inventory spreadsheets today.

2022 purchases: $1,745.22
Sales from those purchases to date: $13,507.03

2023 purchases: $639.82
Sales from those purchases to date: $2,214.73

There's no useful comparison to make between those 2 data points since the 2022 number is 12 months worth of purchases and almost 16 months of sales and 2023 is only less than 4 months of purchases and sales. I also don't expect to have another score like last year's bottle caps though you never know what could happen.

These numbers are ebay only and don't include Marketplace transactions which add about another $400 to the 2023 total (I wasn't keeping track in 2022).

[disneysteve]

Even though I've been doing this for 26 years, I still love how easy it is to quickly make such great returns on my money. I picked up something at an estate sale 2 days ago for $4. I listed it yesterday. I sold it today for $30. Not a big sale by any means but the fact that I can repeatedly and consistently do this over and over and over still amazes me. April has been a bit slow for me but my profit is still about 4.5 times my cost of goods. I'm sure none of us saw that kind of return in our investment portfolios this month.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I'll later sell these silver strikes on eBay. The blue caps (clad silver) on eBay sells for about $29. The red cap (.999 fine silver) sells for about $50. Silver strikes are won in casino slot machines. I also have some small denomination foreign currency to sell but will list them later. My broken collar bone still hasn't healed and I don't want to have to drive to the USPS just to mail items where I might make a few dollars.

[james.hendrickson]

I'll later sell these silver strikes on eBay. The blue caps (clad silver) on eBay sells for about $29. The red cap (.999 fine silver) sells for about $50. Silver strikes are won in casino slot machines. I also have some small denomination foreign currency to sell but will list them later. My broken collar bone still hasn't healed and I don't want to have to drive to the USPS just to mail items where I might make a few dollars.

Looks good QMM - you might as well convert them to cash and get an asset that will provide you some cash flow.