Ebay sellers thread (other platforms too)

[disneysteve]

A Craigslist buyer texted $250. I countered &310. He said $250 is all he got. So I said ok but he has to come tonight. He agreed to come but then said he only has $240 now. I said ok. We shall see if he come tonight and he may go lower when or if he arrives. I may accept a lower amount if he comes just to get rid of the e-bike.

I love when they pull the "it's all I've got". Well maybe if $240 is all you've got you shouldn't be out shopping for a $350 luxury purchase.

[QuarterMillionMan]

The buyer sounds motivated but like the opera saying goes it's not over until the fat lady sings.

[QuarterMillionMan]

A picture is worth a 1000 words. Not to take down all of my listings. Craigslist was the last place I thought it would sell.

[QuarterMillionMan]

For last night's transaction 3 Hispanic guys around 25 - 30 yrs old showed up. Initially they were waiting outside the gate, I had them come inside the gate to test ride the ebike so as not to ride off and away. They were strategic coming in a group of 3 in case something bad happened. For instance, I heard stories where a buyer showed up with the cash and got robbed. Or the seller got robbed. One guy had tats on his face and neck but they all had good vibes and jovial and I never had my senses feel afraid but if it had turned out bad no item is worth my life.

[disneysteve]

Good job, QMM. Glad that went smoothly.

[disneysteve]

A few weeks ago I saw a curb alert on one of my local FB groups. One thing I saw in the photos was a tote full of china. I went right over and got it. It turned out to be 2 sets - one Lenox and one Favolina. Replacements isn't buying the Lenox set so I'm listing it on ebay. They are buying the Favolina set so I packed it up and shipped it off. I got the purchase receipt yesterday for $250. Shipping cost me $43 so my profit on the deal is $207. Not bad at all for something I literally took out of someone's trash less than 3 weeks ago.

[QuarterMillionMan]

Nice score ds. When selling items I have the mindset to be willing to negotiate and to get rid of the item over getting the amount that I want. Keeping the item is like excess baggage or clutter. In Hawaii in 1990's when I worked as a plumber rerouting a customers house from galvanized pipe to copper, I noticed a dead 87 Honda dio motor moped. I offered Dave the customer $500 for the dead moped. He wanted something like $700 and wouldn't budge. I was a gearhead backyard mechanic and wanted to hot rod the moped. Dave was not a gearhead. Later Dave called me saying he would take the $500, but by then I had bought a supped up $1000 Honda moped which could hit 50 - 60 mph. That moped could fly and was too dangerous and thieves would steal those mopeds left and right so in the end I sold it for the same $1000 to a guy who said he was FBI but not sure if he was FBI or just bs'ing. But morale of the story is as a seller sometimes it's not worth sticking to your guns to try and get the highest possible price for an item.

Edit to add, just ask Dave who probably still has that dead 87 Honda moped with weeds overgrown on that moped and Dave regretting not accepting $500 from QMM.

[disneysteve]

When selling items I have the mindset to be willing to negotiate and to get rid of the item over getting the amount that I want. Keeping the item is like excess baggage or clutter.

When selling personal items, definitely. When doing it as a business, the process is different as there's a profit motive, overhead, taxes, cost of goods, ROI, etc. to factor in. Even as a reseller, though, sometimes I'm looking for top dollar and sometimes I'm going for the "fast nickel" instead of the "slow dime". It all depends on the situation, what I paid for the item, how my month has been going, how long the item has been listed, and more.

[QuarterMillionMan]

What about items (question for anyone here) that have sentimental value? Such as heirloom jewelry, mementos, memorabilia, hand-me-downs, inherited gifts from a deceased loved one, etc. I have no attachments to anything that I own and would sell anything of value that I own. Unless the person said to me before they died please don't sell this or that and make sure it stays in the family then and only then would I keep that promise and not sell it and pass it along. People like Dave may have over-valued that 87 dead Honda moped but I can be certain if he had died himself that his descendants would trash that mope or sell for pennies on the dollar.

I always remind myself of this bible verse, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.

[disneysteve]

What about items (question for anyone here) that have sentimental value? Such as heirloom jewelry, mementos, memorabilia, hand-me-downs, inherited gifts from a deceased loved one, etc. I have no attachments to anything that I own and would sell anything of value that I own.

Sentimental value is typically not generational and that's where people get hung up. I might have an item that has meaning to me because I got it from my father, but it has zero meaning to my daughter who never even met my father who died 3 years before she was born. Parents fill their homes with crap saving it for their children and grandchildren when the reality is that their kids/grandkids don't want the stuff.

If you are done with it, get rid of it. We took 6 or 7 cartons of stuff to Goodwill yesterday morning. Freed up a nice space at the front of our garage. As soon as the heat breaks, I'll spend a day or two in there accumulating more stuff to give away. We don't want it or need it and our daughter doesn't want it so what are we saving it for?

[disneysteve]

I spent much of my Labor Day at the local auction house. I did pretty well. I spent $128 on 8 lots. Conservatively, the items I bought will sell for $750+. Most of it will go to Replacements but I also bought quite a few items for ebay. The coolest item I got today is a Medtronic pacemaker model. It's the sort of thing a doctor would have in their office to show patients what their device will look like. I was probably the only person at the auction who realized what it was. They go for about $60 on ebay. I got it in a box lot with a bunch of other items for $5. I also got a piece of art pottery that goes for about $85, so just those 2 items alone will cover what I spent for everything.

[disneysteve]

August 2024 wrap up

Ebay:
$829.98 gross
$543.95 net

Replacements.com:
$610.00 gross
$363.40 net

Total:
$1,439.98 gross
$907.35 net

I'd call it a solid month. I should get a $250 payment from Replacements tomorrow to kick off September. I already have $359 worth of china waiting to go to Replacements plus everything I bought today plus I am currently bidding on 10 lots in an online auction that ends Friday. Hopefully I'll win most of those. At that point, I may plan a road trip to North Carolina to deliver a load of china in person rather than shipping it all. What it will cost me in gas and a hotel for the night I'll save in postage. I may also need to rent a van for for a couple of days as neither of our cars are big enough.

[disneysteve]

I'm actively trying to trim back my ebay business somewhat. The china sales to Replacements have really taken off and now occupy a lot of my time (and space). It isn't necessarily less work but it's relatively easier work and with a greater return for the effort. I'm finding it hard to focus on both aspects of the business since this is still just a side gig for me. I don't plan to stop ebay. In fact, I just listed 2 new items before coming here to post this. But I'd like to gradually decrease my inventory down to about 250 items (I'm at 392 right now and was as high as 410 I think). The significance of the 250 number is that at that level I could cancel my ebay store subscription which costs $22/month as I would no longer need it.

As for china, I won 9 lots in an online estate sale auction this week. I picked it up yesterday morning, spending about 2 hours there packing it all. Total purchase was $924. I believe I'll end up getting $2,500-3,000 for all of it.

I picked up a set from Marketplace the other night. Paid $30 and expected it to be worth $150 but once I got home and inspected it all, many of the pieces have crazing (crackling of the glaze). I'll still make a profit but it will be much smaller. The guy wasn't far away, though, and it turns out he does estate clean outs. When I told him I was a china reseller, he said he definitely needed someone like me as he gets a lot of it. I gave him my card and he'll be in touch when he gets stuff. He said he'd much rather sell to me for a lower price than to list on Marketplace and wait for a buyer and store the stuff. Hopefully that turns out to be a lucrative bit of networking even though this buy ended up kind of a bust.

I'm picking up another set from Marketplace today. Paying $50 and as long as all pieces are in good shape as promised, it'll sell for $350.

The other part of shifting more toward the china sales is time management. I often get up early, go to an estate sale, put my name on the sign in sheet, sit in my car for an hour waiting for the sale to begin, spend an hour or more going through the house, and often leave with nothing or just a few small things. With the china, I may drive 30-60 minutes to pick it up, but I know exactly what I'm getting and generally what I will make on it. It's not a totally sure thing but it's far more certain than the estate sales.

[disneysteve]

I bought a set of china this morning from Marketplace. I paid $350. I'm selling 45 pieces of the set to Replacements for $1,122, a profit of $772. The remaining pieces have already been donated to Goodwill.

Considering my monthly reselling goal has been $600, making more than that on a single flip is wild.

This now stands as my highest dollar sale ever, surpassing the set I sold in July for $948.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I can't believe you are making so much on china.