Selling stuff on eBay

[Bash Riprock 1695]

I know some people sell things on eBay because they need a little extra cash and have things laying around the house they need to get rid of. However, do any of you guys go to garage sales/estate sales/thrift stores find something and then flip it for a profit on eBay?

I do this quite a bit, it’s not necessarily to make money to support myself but rather for fun. I like finding things that are interesting and then researching them. The best is selling it to someone that truly appreciates the item or its something they have been looking for, for a long time.

I sell a lot of vintage sports memorabilia. I live in Lubbock so I find quite a bit of vintage Tech items and old SWC things. Everything else I sell are just things I find interesting. I once find a Zodiac watch at a garage sale and sold it for $200 to some guy in Rhode Island. I bought it for .50 cents.

The most interesting sell to date is when I sold a tumbleweed to some lady in Rising Star, TX.

 

This is the only Tumbleweed I have sold. I have hundreds on my property!

Edited June 28, 2018 by Bash Riprock

[RMac5 1551]

I could retire selling tumbleweeds.

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

That is amazing. That tumbleweed is probably  sitting in mitch Cumsteen  house right now.  I've sold a few things.  Most worthy item was a old satellite  radio reciver.  I have listed other stuff that simply didn't sell, and I wasn't even asking much.  Then I realized no none wanted to buy my crap.  

[RDCanecutter 26377]

I've sold pretty steady for 6 years. Art, silver, embroidered Mexican clothes, gamer stuff, vintage books & models.

My best money has been selling collectible junk for friends. I pay nothing for it, do a 50/50 split after postage. At times it's been a full-time job, usually I at least cover utility bills. They get more than they would make at a garage sale.

I used to visit family in Texas, and dip down into Mexico and buy dozens of Puebla blouses, handmade beach bags, all that folksy stuff. Generally made a good markup, paid for gas to Texas.

It's hard to find local stuff to buy and resell that really moves. I don't lose money, but I've tied up money for longer than I'd like.

I had this brilliant plan to buy silver and gold on Craig's List for a little better than pawn shops, then eBay it at spot. Thing is, Craig's List people think their silver is gold, and their gold is made of diamonds. I wasted a ton of time, crossing town to get 13 bucks worth of Mercury dimes, that sort of thing.

Anyway, good luck. If it doesn't sell the first time, raise the price, and let it ride.

Edited June 29, 2018 by RDCanecutter

[RDCanecutter 26377]

6 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

me no edit good

Edited June 29, 2018 by RDCanecutter

[dcbc 14464]

I've sold quite a few things over the years.  Plenty of guitars, amps, and the like.  I've also sold plenty of things in an effort to declutter or pay for other things I wanted.  I still do from time to time. 

Sold an early 70s Fender Guitar amp head to a Russian guy in Australia last year through the global shipping program.  That's about as far as one of my items has ended up from me. 

[Bash Riprock 1695]

I found a WW2 Aviator Flight Logbook the other day. It belonged to a flight surgeon. I got it for 25 cents. Just got the first bid for 9.99 this morning. 

[RDCanecutter 26377]

My library has pretty constant book sales where you can get small paperbacks for 25 cents. When I was in a financial dead spot, I used to go there, buy a bundle of small language and travel books, then eBay them for 5 bucks each plus 3 bucks shipping. They'd move, I guess a guy could make a living at it if he filled his house with old paperbacks. I had to stop doing that because I don't own enough cats.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

3 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

My library has pretty constant book sales where you can get small paperbacks for 25 cents. When I was in a financial dead spot, I used to go there, buy a bundle of small language and travel books, then eBay them for 5 bucks each plus 3 bucks shipping. They'd move, I guess a guy could make a living at it if he filled his house with old paperbacks. I had to stop doing that because I don't own enough cats.

did you ever use the amazon seller app for that? amazon pays for the shipping on every transaction.

Edited July 4, 2018 by Bash Riprock

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

I have seen people at goodwill scanning books to see how much they're worth.   I'd honestly want to know the hourly income on something like that.   

[RDCanecutter 26377]

2 hours ago, Bash Riprock said:

did you ever use the amazon seller app for that? amazon pays for the shipping on every transaction.

Nah, only sold a few.

[RDCanecutter 26377]

1 hour ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

I have seen people at goodwill scanning books to see how much they're worth.   I'd honestly want to know the hourly income on something like that.   

For just random books, probably low, $10-15 hour. I know somebody who snipes good deals, she probably makes much better. But that's once-in-a-while money, and she has spent her life learning about books so that she can know what to jump on.

What happened with me was I was selling enough other stuff, that eBay would give me hundreds of extra free auctions a month. So I cast about looking for more things to sell. Most things turn out to be duds.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

ive sold about 25 books. the amazon seller app is awesome. you download the app go to a thrift store/garage sale and if you think a book is valuable you can scan the bar-code with your camera and it instantly shows you the rank and how much someone else is selling that book for. 

say you sell it for 25.00. amazon adds on 3.50 to that so you can ship it. and media mail is usually 2.38.

 

[dcbc 14464]

Amazon has changed things over the years, but dumping old DVDs on Amazon was not bad money once upon a time (and you'd make a buck on shipping t'boot.

[52-80 19140]

i could actually see a Tumbleweed decorating some wanker's Contemporary apartment.

[ohchaucer 1443]

Quote

i could actually see a Tumbleweed decorating some wanker's Contemporary apartment.

<Secretly, just for a brief moment, closes eyes and tries to visualize whether this could look cool in my living room, maybe spray-painted white; kinda want, but $17.99 seems pretty steep>

[The University 851]

vintage computers, components, and other old electronics. many buyers are looking to put together systems or get their hands on specific peripherals they wished they had 30-40 years ago. i've sold on ebay off and on since '99 and the most ridiculous "profit" was on an original apple lisa mouse in the original box for over $600. i picked it up at a garage sale for $5. profit is in quotes since that stays in paypal until i find something else to buy on ebay.

[BlueGreySky 1002]

34 minutes ago, The University said:

profit is in quotes since that stays in paypal until i find something else to buy on ebay.

 

ain't that the truth. i've been selling stuff for the last three years.  only about half of the profit makes it to my bank. however, i did nab a great buy yesterday on ebay.  brand new nokona glove, tags still on.  retails for over 300, got it for BGSjr for 150.  my dad bought me a nokona 20 years ago and it is still in great shape and use it when coaching my son's team.

[TornACL 7698]

Anybody selling stuff on EBAY having major issues with USPS? 

Two things have happened recently:

1) Straight up lost items: Item tracking number shows delivered, customer claims it never arrived. I do not have any reason to suspect these people are lying, particularly because....

2) As both buyer and seller, I have noticed USPS items marked as delivered early in the day on delivery day. And then they don't show up until either ~8pm that night or sometimes 1 or 2 days later.

 

What I suspect is happening is that in order to make their performance metrics, mail carriers are scanning everything in their truck as delivered, and then going and actually making the delivery. It's fucking annoying as shit. I bought some shirts online that went through USPS, and I was concerned the box may have been stolen from my house. Scanned as delivered at 10am. I get home from work at 630pm and it's not there. 2 hours later it shows up. Never had this issue with UPS or FedEx.

[Deej 76748]

I have found USPS marks most packages as delivered when they reach the destination post office, now. Shows up in my mail the follwing day. Irritating. 

[The University 851]

usps is the derel of delivery options.

that said, i've had a buyer receive a shipment, pull out a specific card/component, and then complain to ebay that i ripped them off. 

 

[DallasHorn26 586]

Does any one have experience with drop shipping?  I've been looking for some ways to make extra cash and something along these lines seems interesting.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

Does any one have experience with drop shipping?  I've been looking for some ways to make extra cash and something along these lines seems interesting.

What is that?

[Bash Riprock 1695]

The WWII aviator flight log I got for .25 is now up to 26 bucks!

[woohorn 1131]

Does any one have experience with drop shipping?  I've been looking for some ways to make extra cash and something along these lines seems interesting.

Just saw it on Amazon and sounds like a nice deal.

Bought a pretty generic pool solar cover and noted one review said it was just dropshipped from Walmart. Thousands of reviews, so I assumed it was just some random seller, but no "fulfilled by Amazon" or shipping that wasn't 4 or 5 day. Too lazy to log in to Walmart to check.

Mine came in about 5 days drop shipped from HD with "seller's" name on invoice. NBD really, except that I would have rather have gotten it a day or two sooner, but I got what I was promised.

I have been meaning to look up the spread that seller got and maybe I'll try today and post.

GL!

[RDCanecutter 26377]

One thing I've noticed on eBay, is that whenever somebody contacts me with a lowball offer, and I turn it down (I ain't runnin no Goodwill here), within a week some other dude will show up and pay me what I want for it.

This might be karma. But I highly suspect it might be the eBay algorithm pushing my widgets on more people when one person expresses any interest in them.

Would love to get a look under the hood of how they push things.

[DallasHorn26 586]

On 7/7/2018 at 6:33 AM, Bash Riprock said:

On 7/6/2018 at 5:15 PM, DallasHorn26 said:

Does any one have experience with drop shipping?  I've been looking for some ways to make extra cash and something along these lines seems interesting.

What is that?

You basically become the middle man and sell other people's goods.  An example I've seen of this is people will list something for sale that can be bought at Target or Walmart for a small profit.  When a buyer orders it, you just use the cash to purchase the item from WM and have it directly shipped from WM to the buyer, so no inventory needed.  

 

 

 

 

[Bash Riprock 1695]

1 hour ago, DallasHorn26 said:

You basically become the middle man and sell other people's goods.  An example I've seen of this is people will list something for sale that can be bought at Target or Walmart for a small profit.  When a buyer orders it, you just use the cash to purchase the item from WM and have it directly shipped from WM to the buyer, so no inventory needed.  

 

 

 

 

i see. thanks

[Bash Riprock 1695]

Sold the Aviator Flight Log Book for a great profit.

 

[RDCanecutter 26377]

Good job!

[RDCanecutter 26377]

If y'all have decent eBay inventories built up, you might want to check out Bonanza as a back-up site. You can automatically import all your Buy-It-Now eBay listings to Bonanza and if they sell first on eBay, Bonanza automatically removes them too.

It's not as busy as eBay, but it boosted my sales a little with almost no extra work.

The downside is, if you switch a buy it now eBay listing to auction, and it sells, you have to go back into Bonanza to remove that listing by hand. Not major work, but I'd hate to have to turn down a sale because I didn't have the widget anymore.

[phdhorn 6224]

Some guy wants seven bucks for mic instructions (i.e. 1. plug cord into Mic; 2. plug other end of cord into amp/socket; 3) Turn on switch; 4) speak into mic

 

Quote

1980 SHURE SM58 UNIDIRECTIONAL DYMAMIC MICROPHONE USER GUIDE INSTRUCTIONS

 

 

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Price: US $6.99

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I hope he gets it.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

You never know. Could be some guy out there wanting that stuff. 

[atomheartbevo 89618]

On 7/9/2018 at 1:15 PM, Bash Riprock said:

i see. thanks

The other option is to find a reliable international supplier (as close up the chain to the manufacturer as you can) that you can use, especially if it's something that just became popular (USB-C cables after the first USB-C MacBooks shipped, Lightning cables after the iPhone switched, etc.).    This can be especially profitable on Amazon, since initial prices can be higher, but you run into greater chances of things going wrong (since language barriers come into play).

Taking that further (albeit it moves away from drop-shipping, but uses those connections you made), if you are good with technical trends, using the afore-mentioned examples of USB-C or Lightning cables, you can drop a few hundred bucks on such things all at once, getting you a better discount up front, particularly with shipping, but the flip-side is that you end up with a physical inventory.  Still, you can rake it in when there is an initial rush to buy such items.

I have a friend who basically runs a mini-Anime/Japan shop out of her home.  She buys up stuff from Japan and a few other places that you don't see offered here in the US (or at least on Amazon.com).  She combs through the numerous online toy stores in Asia looking for this and that, and she has some deals worked out with some.  She drop-ships such things, but she also has reliable suppliers.

[atomheartbevo 89618]

I used to do a lot of garage sale flipping- mostly consoles and games, and older computer stuff (80s/early 90s), but I reached a point where it felt like eBay was making life way too hard on sellers (reputation changes, guarantees, etc.) to the point where it was easy to get scammed.  Sometimes it could hit thousands of dollars a year, and it was worth it (and I enjoyed the hunt and completing my own collections in the process), but then eBay went through a stretch where I felt I had to treat every single customer as if they were going to fuck me over.

Switched to Craig's List and have not looked back.  I know plenty of others who did as well, although you need to be in a decent city to make it work.  I've wondered if that was why eBay bought into Craig's List, because they saw people getting pissed off.

Anyways, I'll even use Offer-Up and NextDoor to sell stuff (shit you not) as well as CL.

There are some LEGO-specific sales sites dealing in specific pieces/sets, and I have an account to sell through https://www.bricklink.com/catalog.asp but these days, if a garage sale/Craig's List ad even mentions LEGO sets/pieces at a decent price, there are already 10+ people hitting up the seller before I get the chance to.  And I'm competing with people who will pay over the market prices, because while many are looking to flip those LEGO sets/pieces, plenty are collectors/builders who need the pieces and don't care.

 

[atomheartbevo 89618]

One thing that makes me kind of pissed/sad, is that back in the 90s when some friends and I were hitting up garage sales, a lot of parents were selling GI Joe, Star Wars, etc. stuff from 80s kids that were out of the house, and I passed up on a lot of it in favor of sticking to video games and computers.

That G.I. Joe and Star Wars stuff, some of that has aged so much better price-wise than a lot of console stuff.

And I would love to have a lot more stuff to pass on to my 5 year old now.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

15 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I used to do a lot of garage sale flipping- mostly consoles and games, and older computer stuff (80s/early 90s), but I reached a point where it felt like eBay was making life way too hard on sellers (reputation changes, guarantees, etc.) to the point where it was easy to get scammed.  Sometimes it could hit thousands of dollars a year, and it was worth it (and I enjoyed the hunt and completing my own collections in the process), but then eBay went through a stretch where I felt I had to treat every single customer as if they were going to fuck me over.

Switched to Craig's List and have not looked back.  I know plenty of others who did as well, although you need to be in a decent city to make it work.  I've wondered if that was why eBay bought into Craig's List, because they saw people getting pissed off.

Anyways, I'll even use Offer-Up and NextDoor to sell stuff (shit you not) as well as CL.

There are some LEGO-specific sales sites dealing in specific pieces/sets, and I have an account to sell through https://www.bricklink.com/catalog.asp but these days, if a garage sale/Craig's List ad even mentions LEGO sets/pieces at a decent price, there are already 10+ people hitting up the seller before I get the chance to.  And I'm competing with people who will pay over the market prices, because while many are looking to flip those LEGO sets/pieces, plenty are collectors/builders who need the pieces and don't care.

 

I feel like an amateur now.

[atomheartbevo 89618]

18 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

I feel like an amateur now.

Don't.   In the case of the garage sale/videogame stuff, it was more about paying for my hobby and offloading a lot of extra stuff I ended up with.   Way too many times I'd be after one or two game cartridges, and the seller was like "no, I'm selling it all together", and before I know it, I'd have a couple of dozen 2600 consoles to sell off.  Still have probably 10 or so medium-sized moving boxes full of consoles, carts, etc. that I need to go through.  

Kind of the same with LEGO stuff, although these days my kid will take in any and all LEGO I pick up anywhere, so it's. not something I do actively.

Anyways, I didn't set out to do this stuff as a side gig or anything, it was more about getting stuck with extra stuff and using it to pay for hobbies and/or keep it from piling up around the house.

However, I do have friends who still actively do this kind of stuff (flipping, drop shipping, etc.), but it can be very hard work, and requires you to be very organized and fast.

[RDCanecutter 26377]

5 hours ago, phdhorn said:

Some guy wants seven bucks for mic instructions (i.e. 1. plug cord into Mic; 2. plug other end of cord into amp/socket; 3) Turn on switch; 4) speak into mic

 

I hope he gets it.

I've sold similar. Sometimes it helps to time auctions so they end when people are most likely to be drunk.

[DougO 5243]

I have some rolls of rustyass barbed wire saved up. Ever since I saw some goofy TV show where some girls payed a ridiculous price for rustyass barbed wire I have had visions of funding my retirement with it. Or I can scrap it for a nickel or two.

[wild_turkey 3159]

On 7/6/2018 at 11:15 AM, DallasHorn26 said:

Does any one have experience with drop shipping?  I've been looking for some ways to make extra cash and something along these lines seems interesting.

I don't have experience but I remember this podcast episode from Reply All that was quite interesting:

https://www.gimletmedia.com/reply-all/117-the-worlds-most-expensive-free-watch

[RDCanecutter 26377]

16 hours ago, DougO said:

I have some rolls of rustyass barbed wire saved up. Ever since I saw some goofy TV show where some girls payed a ridiculous price for rustyass barbed wire I have had visions of funding my retirement with it. Or I can scrap it for a nickel or two.

If you scrap it, you increase the value of all the other rolls of rustyass barbed wire in the world.

[Reagan1k 3024]

1 hour ago, RDCanecutter said:

If you scrap it, you increase the value of all the other rolls of rustyass barbed wire in the world.

Market manipulation at it's finest - You should buy more rusty barbed wire yourself and corner the market instead of scrapping it.

The Hunt brothers would be so proud.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

Just sold this. Really dont know what it is.

Bought it for 5 bucks. Sold today.

[RDCanecutter 26377]

Just got a $140 offer from Canada (in US dollars) for artsy widgets that I almost forgot I had.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

pics?

[RDCanecutter 26377]

29 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

pics?

I'll pm you my seller name.

[Bash Riprock 1695]

i have a HUGE problem with people not leaving me feedback on eBay, especially when selling something. i swear i've sold over 200 things and have 90 reviews. 

[RDCanecutter 26377]

14 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

i have a HUGE problem with people not leaving me feedback on eBay, especially when selling something. i swear i've sold over 200 things and have 90 reviews. 

That seems to be how it goes. Maybe 1/2 report back.

[RDCanecutter 26377]

Sold a painting. Can go fill the car with bottles of Thunderbird.