I buy on Ebay, but have never sold anything. My boss at work is going to some kind of seminar that teaches you to make money there. But it is costing her quite a bit of money so far.

The seminar shows you how to get set up for credit cards, and helps you find warehouses that have products to sell.

I'm just curious.

Hey B--
That's my second "job." I sell infant-to-childre;s clothing I buy from outlets, garage sales, sale racks, even other badly-listed Ebay auctions. I am hoping to pay off my CC debt within two years by doing this.

I've sold about $1700 these past two weeks, though that is obviously not all profit.
Setting up for Credit cards is done with paypal--and it's all a no-brainer. I don't take CC's directly--just through paypal.

If I can answer any ?'s, let me know. I do it because I have to support my family, and my inclime since I stopped teaching is not what I need it to be. I spend MANY hours working on it--about 4-5 a night. (which is why I'm on MB so late at night <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />)

Intexas

How interesting. I have thought about selling things, just wondering what to sell. I'm a collector, and have am interested in all kinds of junk.

I met a woman at Goodwill who was putting her 2 kids through college by selling on Ebay. She buys high end name brand stuff and resells it.

That's what I do--and I think I could do more. I've done it for a hile--butmore for extra money. Now that I am in charge of my whole family financially, it's time for me to do whatever I can. I keep detailed records, receipts,etc, because tax time next year I am sure will be a headache. I am profting about $800 right now/two weeks--kind of--depends on the sales the week before, etc.

I really only sell clothes, and I get many items at garage sales.

There's a rush to it--buying a ralph lauren dress for 25cents and reselling it for $20 is AWESOME! I think it's my sixth sense--finding good deals. All my friends use me as their personal shopper, and I think I am invited to more b-dy parties because they know I'll give their kids some cute clothes <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />!

But it can be exhaustig and very time consuming, I think it's fun, though. I HATE mail day--post office with 2 or 3 kids is not fun. I don;t ship priority, so I can;'t mail from home.

I know, shipping it would be the part I wouldn't like.

I'll keep thinking about it, and look around for something good to sell.

my mom sells chenile bedspreads and other linens, but I don't think she does well.

The key is to sell what you know--what you like. It's more fun that way.

I like 14k gold rings. But would need to find a good source. I've bought some on ebay, but good prices don't come along that often.

I think they have nice ones in Thailand. Maybe I could take a trip there.

Now that would be fun and enterprising! I say go for it!

My church is taking a small group to thailand this summer to work in an orphanage. I'd love to go, but I know it's not the season for me to do so.

What about locally--think locally of things you like, etc. Some people even sell coupons--stuff like that.

i have sold things off and on on ebay.. wish i had more to sell. i have had ok luck doing it.

mlhb

Well, my new ebay career seems to be kind of a flop. One of my payments was returned today with a rather nasty note that I need to read the instructions better because the seller does not sell to anyone without a confirmed address.

Anyone know what this means?

Hope that helps, Believer.

Duh..... Thanks - That fixed it. I had a different (my neighbor's) Paypal address because I'm not home in the day, and I wanted the stuff delivered there. I changed it to make it right.

Thanks a lot for your help. I'm sure this was explained somewhere, but I'm always in a hurry.

My pleasure! I love the help button on anything. I'm always searching on the help function.

Good luck with Ebay. If you have any other questions, I'll be glad to help.

Intexas

Now if I can just get it straightened out with the seller.....

The fact that teh seller was rude probably isn;t good, but I'd e-mail him/her and say your address is now confirmed. That should take care of it.

Will do. Thanks.

Hi, believer. I've been selling on eBay for a year and a half. I used to have an extensive set of books related to my former obessive hobby. Since I reconnected with my W, I've given up the hobby, so I've been selling the books off ever since. (The money is going toward a diamond ring for her).

I've never taken a seminar, I've just sort of figured it out on my own. I might have made more $$ if I had done so, but on many of the books I made a lot more than I had anticipated anyway.

Shipping hasn't been that big of a hassle for me, yet... but so far all of my sales have weighed approximately the same. I've used USPS mostly, and charge a little bit more than the postage, to cover the cost of the envelope, etc. I do have some items that will be a lot heavier, since we don't have a precision scale in the house, I will probably package the item before selling it, and take it to the post office to be weighed and priced - and then post the item for sale.

The writeup and the picture are important, it's a good idea to see what others have written, so you'd want to read a lot of items similar to what you'd sell. And come up with good titles.

Last thing is pricing. My wife buys a lot on eBay, and has noticed a lot of times people get greedy with their sale prices, and the items end up not selling. I make a practice of setting a low price with the hopes that will attract more bidders and drive the price up. Although there is always the chance that you could end up selling something for less than you'd like, in general you do get more bids, and higher bids, if you lowball the starting price.

Good luck!

Hi, Believer,

I wouldn't bother with buying books on how to sell on Ebay or paying to attend a seminar.

You can learn all you need to know by browsing the Ebay discussion boards. Try reading the Seller's board.

I can tell you that you do NOT want to sign up with a drop-shipper. You would have no control over the shipping, which is extremely important, OR the quality of the product.. It's better that you sell things that you actually have on hand. That way, you will KNOW that the item is properly packaged and that it goes out on time.

You definitely NEED a digital scale, but you can get one pretty cheaply on Ebay. I paid about $26 for the one I have...a lot cheaper than they are at an office supply store. What I do is to actually package up my item, ready to ship, and weigh it. That way, my postage is accurate. I also charge a reasonable handling fee to cover the cost of packaging materials, like kraft paper, styrofoam peanuts, bubble wrap, tape, printer ink, etc. For priority mail, you can get free priority mail boxes at the post office. BTW, you can ONLY use these boxes for priority mail. I collect other boxes when I find 'em..for free.

I think that you mentioned wanting to sell gold jewelry. I would stay away from expensive stuff to start out. People are leery of buying high $$ stuff from sellers with low selling feedback. Also, there are a LOT of jewelry sellers on Ebay.

I've been on a sort of hiatus from selling for a while, because I've been extremely busy with reorganizing my husband's business, but need to get back into it because I have some inventory to move.

My DD and I have a small $1 store. We buy salvage merchandise by pallet-loads, which is mostly discontinued items, and pick out the pricier items to sell on Ebay. Most of the things I sell cost me less than $1. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I do not start auctions off at 99 cents, either. I start with the minimum I'm willing to accept, and I check the prices to make sure that I'm offering a good bargain (I include the shipping in my calculations).

I also do not choose all the options available to add on to the listings. That can run your fees up in a hurry. I just use the Gallery option when it's something that people might look at and then think, "Oh, that looks good!", and then click on my listing.

Taking good clear pics is important. Since most of the things I sell are small items, I take pics of it in front of a neutral background, and crop out the excess background.

The standard selling format is easy to use, but you have to pay for more than 1 photo (if it's an item that should be shown from more than one angle). You can learn html coding to create your own selling format, and include as many pics as you want for free. That takes a little practice, but it's not hard.

The best way to start out on Ebay is by looking around your house for things that you don't want or need anymore. This will give you a "feel" for whether or not you really want to sell on Ebay without your sinking money into inventory.

Anyway, check out the discussion boards on Ebay. You'll learn from the folks who are actually selling, and they are more than happy to help.