Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[disneysteve]

A few months back my wife and I were out at yard sales. She bought a jar full of crochet hooks for $1. She got home and went through them and picked out a bunch that she wanted. She gave me the rest to try and resell. I sold them today for $21.95. Win win. She got probably $50 worth of supplies for free and I got 22 times my investment.

[disneysteve]

September 2023 wrap up

Ebay:
$760.93 gross
$552.27 net
23 ebay sales

Yard sale:
$328.00 gross
$300.00 net
(This isn't really accurate as everything we sold cost us something at some point in time. I only counted the things I specifically bought to resell.)

Private online sale:
$67.00 gross
$57.66 net
(This was something I found a private buyer for and sold directly, not through any online platform.)

Totals:
$1,155.93 gross
$909.93 net

Not a bad month at all. Early in the month I kind of stepped back from ebay while I was getting ready for the yard sale so the fact that I still hit my monthly goal on ebay was good given I didn't give it a full effort for the month.

[disneysteve]

I totally forgot to share this here. Tuesday night I attended ebay Open in Philadelphia, an in-person event that ebay runs each year for sellers. They share company updates and have stations set up from the various departments to talk with company reps and answer any questions you have. The highlight of the night was that the President and CEO, Jamie Iannone, was there in person. I had the opportunity to meet him and chat with him for a while. That was pretty cool. I told him my bottle cap story which he really liked.

[disneysteve]

I went to an estate sale last Wednesday (5/26/23).
My big score was a complete set of Lenox spice jars from 1994 that are highly collectible. A full set sells for about $400 ($500 with the rack, which they didn't have) or about $25 each sold individually. I had to get them cleaned up as they were filthy but I started listing them and have already sold 3 for $24.90 each so $74.70 total. I paid $15 for all 24 pieces ($0.63 each). Assuming I sell them all for that price, that will bring in just under $600. Nice return on a $15 purchase.

Fun little update. It's been just over 4 months. Again, I paid $15 for a set of 24 spice jars.

Someone bought 7 today bringing my total sold to 13 for a combined $306. I have 11 left to sell but I've already made 20 times my cost. Selling the rest will bring in another $220-250 or about 35 times my cost.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Fun little update. It's been just over 4 months. Again, I paid $15 for a set of 24 spice jars.

Someone bought 7 today bringing my total sold to 13 for a combined $306. I have 11 left to sell but I've already made 20 times my cost. Selling the rest will bring in another $220-250 or about 35 times my cost.

I don't have to mention again but reselling if you are a stay at home parent with limited time to make money I think would be an awesome way to supplement income if getting out of debt or saving for something. A goal of even $500 a month to do something like what steve does would make a huge dent for many people.

[disneysteve]

I don't have to mention again but reselling if you are a stay at home parent with limited time to make money I think would be an awesome way to supplement income if getting out of debt or saving for something. A goal of even $500 a month to do something like what steve does would make a huge dent for many people.

This is so true, as I've said before. I listen to an ebay podcast and the guest this week is a full time RN and mother of 3 including a child with special needs. Still, she sells on ebay and does $5,000/month in sales. Imagine what she could make if she worked at it full time. If someone needs or wants extra money, online reselling is a side gig with virtually no barrier to entry. You can start by selling things around the house and then bankroll that money into expanding your inventory so that you never have to invest a penny to start the business except maybe to buy a roll of packing tape.

Even though I'm mostly retired, I don't treat ebay as a job. I still look at it as a fun hobby that just happens to make me money. My profit YTD is over $7,000. If I got serious about it I could easily double or triple that or more. But imagine how life changing an extra $700/mo would be for someone struggling with debt or barely making ends meet. Nothing I'm doing is hard or mysterious. Anyone could do the same thing.

[disneysteve]

Today is only October 5 but so far this month, I've made 6 sales. Gross of $268.64. Profit of $223.33. My cost for those items was just $10.75 meaning my profit is about 20.7 times my cost. Where else can you get that kind of return?

[LivingAlmostLarge]

This is so true, as I've said before. I listen to an ebay podcast and the guest this week is a full time RN and mother of 3 including a child with special needs. Still, she sells on ebay and does $5,000/month in sales. Imagine what she could make if she worked at it full time. If someone needs or wants extra money, online reselling is a side gig with virtually no barrier to entry. You can start by selling things around the house and then bankroll that money into expanding your inventory so that you never have to invest a penny to start the business except maybe to buy a roll of packing tape.

Even though I'm mostly retired, I don't treat ebay as a job. I still look at it as a fun hobby that just happens to make me money. My profit YTD is over $7,000. If I got serious about it I could easily double or triple that or more. But imagine how life changing an extra $700/mo would be for someone struggling with debt or barely making ends meet. Nothing I'm doing is hard or mysterious. Anyone could do the same thing.

You know "fun" hobby that makes $7k is sort of funny. You aren't even trying to make it a side hustle. It's mostly selling interesting items you find when you are looking for your own things. You are collectist (disneysteve = collected diseny memorbilia) and selling was just the extras you saw. I find it incredible how people who do this fall into it and so many more aren't even that into it but just sell what they buy for themselves and then change their minds.

[disneysteve]

You know "fun" hobby that makes $7k is sort of funny. You aren't even trying to make it a side hustle. It's mostly selling interesting items you find when you are looking for your own things. You are collectist (disneysteve = collected diseny memorbilia) and selling was just the extras you saw. I find it incredible how people who do this fall into it and so many more aren't even that into it but just sell what they buy for themselves and then change their minds.

Yes and no. When I started selling collectibles back in 1986 it was totally an offshoot of my own collecting. Today, though, it's very much intentionally buying things to resell. We haven't been actively collecting for many years. Of course, we do still occasionally buy things for ourselves when out sourcing for ebay but the primary focus is resale.

The woman on the podcast who I mentioned earlier started selling stuff when she would go shopping at the thrift store for her family and after getting home had items that didn't fit or they didn't like. She found, however, that she was buying things at Goodwill for $2-3 and getting $20-30 for them on ebay. Eventually she started intentionally shopping to resell and now grosses 5K/month as a side gig to her full time nursing job.

[skives]

Where do you find what items are in demand on eBay?

[disneysteve]

Where do you find what items are in demand on eBay?

You can search on ebay and see sold items for the past 90 days and if you have an ebay account you can use their Terapeak service to search back 2 years of sales. I look up most items before I buy them except for things that I already know are good sellers.

[disneysteve]

I apparently significantly under priced something today. A couple of weeks ago I bought a box full of 1970s racing programs and betting tickets at an estate sale. I paid about $3.50 for the whole box.

Today, I sorted them by racetrack and listed one lot of 6 programs from Atlantic City. There weren't really any good comps to go by so I priced the lot at $14.95 and it sold very quickly. There are dozens more so even if I got that amount for every 6 I'd do very well, but the speed of that sale makes me suspect. that they're worth more than that. I just joined a horse racing memorabilia FB group and posed the question there. I'll see what folks say. It's always tough when I get a hold of something unusual that there just aren't a bunch of sales for.

If I don't find any good info, I'll probably list another 6 but up the price some, like to $19.95. Again, if I could get $3-4 for every program I have, that would be great, but I'd also like to know if I could actually get $10 each instead.

ETA: The responses I've gotten so far suggest that I didn't under price them. I just got lucky and found someone who wanted them. In fact, they're surprised I got that much for them. So I may not get that kind of money for all of them, but that's okay. I spent $3.50 and already made $14.95 in the first sale. I may still price the next lot of 6 a little higher but not much. I'd rather sell them than sit on them for a long time.

[disneysteve]

I got the answer to my horse racing programs. One of the 6 programs included an early race by a horse that went on to win the Triple Crown. That program alone is worth up to $75. I found a collector who offered to check the other programs I have and let me know if any are of particular value. Most programs aren’t really worth much.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

That's crazy about racing programs

[disneysteve]

I took a look at a data point I haven't looked at before: sales vs. cost of items sold.

For 2023 YTD, my sales are 8.7 times my cost for the items I've sold. The first quarter wasn't great and pulled down the average.
1st quarter: 5.9x
2nd quarter: 12.6x
3rd quarter: 11.8x
4th quarter so far: 11.5x

So the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and the current quarter thus far, have been quite good. Hopefully I can keep up that multiple going forward. I think 10x or more is very solid.