Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[james.hendrickson]

Just today I learned of an app called Freebie Alerts that notifies you every time someone posts an item for free on Marketplace, Nextdoor, OfferUp, and TrashNothing, so rather than having to monitor all 4 of those, the app does it for you. You set your location and desired radius. I set mine for 10 miles and so far I've gotten notices about numerous pieces of furniture, an art mat cutter, a wet suit, bricks, 3-ring binders, a freezer, a TV, and lots of other stuff. There is absolutely stuff just from today that I could have claimed and flipped for a profit.

If you need or want some extra money, it's out there waiting for you.

downloaded that bad boy.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Just today I learned of an app called Freebie Alerts that notifies you every time someone posts an item for free on Marketplace, Nextdoor, OfferUp, and TrashNothing, so rather than having to monitor all 4 of those, the app does it for you. You set your location and desired radius. I set mine for 10 miles and so far I've gotten notices about numerous pieces of furniture, an art mat cutter, a wet suit, bricks, 3-ring binders, a freezer, a TV, and lots of other stuff. There is absolutely stuff just from today that I could have claimed and flipped for a profit.

If you need or want some extra money, it's out there waiting for you.

That's incredible. How would you sell these things to make a profit? Ebay? Marketplace?

[disneysteve]

That's incredible. How would you sell these things to make a profit? Ebay? Marketplace?

Personally, I would only get things that I could sell on eBay. I like things that are fairly easy to ship. But other sellers in my groups post about getting furniture free or really cheap and selling it online. They deal with freight shippers who have no trouble with that stuff. I don’t have the desire or storage to get into items like that.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I had a client/friend who resold cars he would buy, fix, and drive for say 3-6 months then resell for more than he put into and bought it for. It was his way to cheaply buying and driving cool cars.

[disneysteve]

I had a client/friend who resold cars he would buy, fix, and drive for say 3-6 months then resell for more than he put into and bought it for. It was his way to cheaply buying and driving cool cars.

I had a friend in high school/college who did this. He would buy a car for $500-1,000 (this was in the mid 80s). He'd keep it for a few months, during which time he'd do some inexpensive repairs and clean it up. Then he would sell it usually for more than he had paid. Even if he broke even, it meant he had a free car for a few months.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

The guy who bought our ford focus did that as a hobby and cheap way to get fun cars to drive. Some expensive some cheap.

[disneysteve]

On 8/20 I went to a church yard sale. I bought 73 books for a total of $18.25.

So far, I've sold 48 of them for $58.00. I've tripled my money in under 4 weeks and still have 25 books left to sell.

If only the stock market worked this well.

[disneysteve]

I think I mentioned going to an auction recently. I've been a bit disappointed with my results so far from the stuff I bought, which is my own fault of course. I did sell a Lenox vase to a woman in China for $40. And just now, I sold a total of 13 Matchbox trucks to two buyers, one in Georgia and one in England, for a total of $49. I'm still not even on the day as I spent $111 at the auction, but at least I'm a lot closer. There are still numerous items listed and a few that haven't gotten listed yet so hopefully I'll eke out at least a little profit from the day. I'll definitely be more discerning next time I go.

[disneysteve]

A side benefit to all of my ebay sourcing is that I sometimes come across something for myself. I went to an estate sale today and bought a brand new RCA turntable/CD player/radio combo for a whopping $10. I didn't test it there but it looked new so I took a chance. Brought it home, grabbed a record out of the garage, and it works great. I was huge into records years ago and even though I haven't owned a turntable for many years, I never got rid of my record collection. Now for $10 I get to enjoy them all again.

I also know that vinyl is hot again and many of the records in my collection have appreciated greatly in value. The first record I grabbed today because it was at the front of a crate was the original soundtrack to the Willie Wonka movie. I looked on ebay and it sells for about $60. Heck, if a lot of my records are worth that much, I've probably got upwards of 15K worth of records. I'm not planning to sell them, but if some are worth a good bit more than that, I might change my mind. I do have some pretty desirable ones like first press Beatles albums and stuff like that.

[Jluke]

Heck, if a lot of my records are worth that much, I've probably got upwards of 15K worth of records. I'm not planning to sell them, but if some are worth a good bit more than that, I might change my mind. I do have some pretty desirable ones like first press Beatles albums and stuff like that.

Might be a good detail to share the monetary value potential with your wife and daughter.

this way records don't end up in the trash at some point.

[disneysteve]

I love quick flips even if the amount isn’t that big. At the estate sale yesterday I bought something for $2.50. Sold it today for $13.99, net $10 after fees.

Quadrupled my money in under 24 hours. I’ll take that margin all day every day.

[disneysteve]

I got serious again about selling on ebay around the beginning of this year. At first, I was just going to focus on stuff we already had, but on February 19 I went to my first estate sale. It happened to be in the development across the street from us.

I bought 6 items for a total of $14. The last of the 6 sold today. Total sales of $88.39 from my $14 investment, 6.3 times what I paid.

Since then, I've gone to dozens of estate sales and done thousands of dollars in sales but that's the sale that got me back into reselling.

I've started going through my inventory to try to move the stuff I've had the longest. The piece that sold today was the longest. Now to move on to the stuff next in line. I'll freshen up the listings and lower the prices as appropriate to try and drum up some business on things that have been sitting around for 5-6 months. Not all buys are winners but virtually everything will sell at the right price.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

that's amazing. What happens if you pick something not a winner?

[disneysteve]

that's amazing. What happens if you pick something not a winner?

If I really can't sell something online, I'll put it out at a yard sale next spring. I'm already gathering stuff in the garage for a yard sale. Otherwise, I'll donate things to Goodwill.

Ultimately, it's the big picture that matters. If over the course of the year I spend $1,500 on stuff to sell and make $10,000, it doesn't matter if I end up dumping some of the items that didn't sell.

[madal38089]

It's all kind of complicated for me. I've never sold anything on eBay, just bought from my hidden account and that's it.