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I know a few of you sell at least occasionally on ebay. I don't think any of you sell regularly but I may be wrong. I figured I'd start a thread for any ebayers to share tips and tricks and progress and challenges.
I've been on ebay since 1997. I did it heavily the first few years, even briefly doing it as my only job for a few months in 2000. Over the years, I drifted away from it as work and life got busy but I never stopped completely. Last year after my cousin died, I started selling some of his stuff and once I got home (I was in Florida for 6 weeks settling his estate) I started doing it more seriously with both his stuff and my own. In February of this year, I also started buying items for resale at estate sales and thrift shops, then yard sales when that season started.
My goal for this year was to average at least $200/month profit. That turned out to be way too low. For the first 6 months of the year, my actual profit was $5,562 or $927/month. There was one really big score in there (the bottlecaps I mentioned in the "Post your wins" thread). Only 3 weeks into the 3rd quarter, I've already made $878 profit in July. My goal now is to average at least $1,000/month for the 2nd half of the year.
I switch from part time to per diem at work as of August 7 so I'll be working less (8-12 hrs/wk instead of 24) and plan to devote more time to sourcing and selling. One thing I've been doing recently is focusing on increasing the average price of the items I sell. It used to be a lot of $10-15 things but lately it's been more $20-50 items and several above that.
Some recent sales examples:
Set of woodworking DVDs paid $10, sold for $200
Chronicles of Narnia book paid $2, sold for $30
Sopranos DVD boxed set paid $10, sold for $45
Vintage camping mess kit paid $2, sold for $35
Wenger backpack paid $5, sold for $35
I'll sell pretty much anything except for clothing. I also don't mess with stuff I know nothing about like car parts, trading cards of any kind, etc.
Since I started going to estate sales in February, I've spent $691 on merchandise and so far have gross sales of $7,743 from the items I've bought, and a lot of them haven't sold yet. Not a bad return on investment at all. Sure beats what the stock market has been doing lately. My hope is that once I have more time to devote to it I'll be able to scale it up some and maintain at least a 10-fold return on investment. That would be a nice supplement to our income and is something that I totally love doing.
So let's hear your ebay stories (or other platforms if you sell elsewhere like Mercari or Poshmark or wherever).
I've been on ebay since 1997. I did it heavily the first few years, even briefly doing it as my only job for a few months in 2000. Over the years, I drifted away from it as work and life got busy but I never stopped completely. Last year after my cousin died, I started selling some of his stuff and once I got home (I was in Florida for 6 weeks settling his estate) I started doing it more seriously with both his stuff and my own. In February of this year, I also started buying items for resale at estate sales and thrift shops, then yard sales when that season started.
My goal for this year was to average at least $200/month profit. That turned out to be way too low. For the first 6 months of the year, my actual profit was $5,562 or $927/month. There was one really big score in there (the bottlecaps I mentioned in the "Post your wins" thread). Only 3 weeks into the 3rd quarter, I've already made $878 profit in July. My goal now is to average at least $1,000/month for the 2nd half of the year.
I switch from part time to per diem at work as of August 7 so I'll be working less (8-12 hrs/wk instead of 24) and plan to devote more time to sourcing and selling. One thing I've been doing recently is focusing on increasing the average price of the items I sell. It used to be a lot of $10-15 things but lately it's been more $20-50 items and several above that.
Some recent sales examples:
Set of woodworking DVDs paid $10, sold for $200
Chronicles of Narnia book paid $2, sold for $30
Sopranos DVD boxed set paid $10, sold for $45
Vintage camping mess kit paid $2, sold for $35
Wenger backpack paid $5, sold for $35
I'll sell pretty much anything except for clothing. I also don't mess with stuff I know nothing about like car parts, trading cards of any kind, etc.
Since I started going to estate sales in February, I've spent $691 on merchandise and so far have gross sales of $7,743 from the items I've bought, and a lot of them haven't sold yet. Not a bad return on investment at all. Sure beats what the stock market has been doing lately. My hope is that once I have more time to devote to it I'll be able to scale it up some and maintain at least a 10-fold return on investment. That would be a nice supplement to our income and is something that I totally love doing.
So let's hear your ebay stories (or other platforms if you sell elsewhere like Mercari or Poshmark or wherever).
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