Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: muckmaw on May 30, 2003, 01:16:22 PM
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Just curious. I've been doing it for 2 years to add a little income, and have a few laughs. I grab 90% of my stuff at garage sales, and the rest out of peoples trash, and crank it into cash.
Anyone have any tips on how to list better, faster?
Also, good places to get stuff to sell?
I'd also love to hear any weird success/failure stories on this fun little game called E-bay.
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I sold a few things on ebay.
If you open a paypal account it makes it easier. That way you don't need to wait for a check.
what do you wanna know?
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http://www.audiogon.com/ is supposedly good if you're selling audio equipment.
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I've run about 2000 auctions over the past 3 years, and I've got everything set up. I take paypal, and ship UPS from my office. THe process is really streamlined.
I've just set a goal of earning $15,000 by october, so I've cranked up the auctions from 20 live at any day to 50, and I was wondering if anyone had any tips for listing faster...better, making more money..etc.
Percentage-wise, my biggest hit was a month ago. I bought a set of Salt and Pepper shakers for $3.00 at a yard sale. Turns out, they were quite collectible, as they resembled a cupie doll...*shrugs*
They sold for $400.00.
People collect the weirdest toejam.
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I've never sold on ebay, only bought, and I've only bought books, scale models, and golf equipment so my advice is extremely focused on those things.
For scale models, shrinkwrapped boxes are nice because it implies that the kit is in its own little time capsule from the factory, but I prefer boxes that have been opened so that the photo can show what comes in the box, with a nice photo of the decals (the first part of a kit to go bad), and whether anything is broken, painted, or missing. If you buy a kit at a garage sale and intend to resell it, I suggest you take the time to (a) verify that all the parts are there and (b) put the pieces in a ziploc bag. Put the decals in a separate ziploc bag to keep the moisture off of them and to keep them from getting scratched.
I also prefer buying kits in groups: i.e. 2 kits up for auction together, or a kit with a book, or something along those lines, to get the feeling that I'm getting a little something extra for my shipping trouble. If you put stuff up for auction individually, offer to combine shipping.
For books, mention if the binding is tight, are there any color photos, worn edges on the cover, # pages, copyright date of the edition, stains or discoloring, and, believe it or not, whether it smells or not. Books from a smoking home can really stink up a small room.
For golf clubs, mention scratches on the head or shaft, wear on the grip, shaft flex, stickers/labels, grass stains, and such.
I'm willing to pay a bit more for the convenience of using PayPal than I am to cut a personal check or, even more of a hassle, a money order or cashier's check.
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I dont do much selling - but alot of buying. Mainly car parts - havent had a bad experience yet.
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Good Stuff, Gofaster.
I do some books from time to time, and never thought about the "smell" thing.
I never seem to find any models at garage sales.
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I buy and sell about equally. I sell used and new computer stuff that I don't need, and I buy lots of little stuff like CDs and used games. Two things that eBay rules for:
1. Raiders tickets.
2. Vanishingly rare parts for old R/C cars.
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I've done ebay (selling and buying) since 1998. Been a blast
Best things I've sold: I had bought NFR copies of Visual Basic for Windows Version 1.0 and never opened it. I was going to throw it away but thought I'd see what it would fetch...I expected $10 tops. Got $490!
I paid $19!
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find a nitch
example:
guy sells old VW wiring schematics for $5 (he's copied from amnuals and printed copies for pennies)
when you need one, you'll pay the $5 in a hurry
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I have never sold anything there, but I buy all the time.
Yesterday I bought a 15GB iPod because there is no way to make any company ship that outside the continental US.
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iPod's r ghey
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Apple products make you an intellectual
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Yeah and they make you crave dick too.
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Then you must be the proud owner of a Mac G4 with 21" Apple Cinema Display, 30Gb iPod, 17" Powerbook, and the gayest apple product of all: The Apple Cube.
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HOW DARE YOU!
That's it, I'm flying to Mexico to kick your ass!
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Sounds like you've already got a nice system down, Muck. I like selling and buying crap on Ebay too. I generally ship USPS Priority Mail, tho', since I don't have work access to UPS. The nice part about that is that USPS gives away their shipping supplies (boxes, envelopes, packing tape) for free if you're shipping priority...they'll even deliver it to your door!
If I don't need money at the time, Paypal's a great place to keep your money in waiting for your next purchase of that ebay treasure (or crap) that you just can't live without. :)
What's your ID?
SOB
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My wife & I have both bought & sold on Ebay.
Best was a set of cardboard punchout cow calf pairs from DeLaval.
Grandma has a whole shoebox full. We sold a full set of all 5 cows for about 800$
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Funked, don't get pissed, its not like Animal said your wife needed to wear a paper bag and get a tit job or anything.
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My wifey has a business....Merchant Trading Company...all Ebay.
Selling on Ebay is easy....you make your real money when you buy the item you intend to sell, not when you sell it:)
Here is what I did....I went to a wholesaler of gift type ebay type items....I negotiated a deal whereby we can take the pics of his inventory and place them for sale....when they sell, we then buy the items....no out of pocket up front cash...no risk...we use their money.
If you look and speak with enough folks, antique stores, wholesalers, etc., you'll find the right niche product....focus on collectibles.
New York is one of the best locations in the country for buying wholesale, closeouts, etc....I have a friend who sells only Doc Martins....his entire house is a distribution center:) He's in Tulsa, buys in New York.
We currently are doing anywhere from $300-$1500 per week running only 15-25 sales per week....it's a great way to supplement your income, especially if you have kids:)
Remember, focus on buying the right product at the right price....selling it on ebay is the easy part.
Good Luck
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That sounds great Rude!
I'm going to look around and see what I can find as far as collectibles, wholesale. etc.
Thanks again!
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I'm trying to buy a car stereo and so I'm hunting around on ebay for the first time. It's nifty, but can be pretty funny too... with ads like these popping up every once in a while. Kinda makes ya wonder what world the seller is living in:
"SONY CD RDS RADIO CAR STEREO SYSTEM,THE FRONT CLIPS OF,EXCELLENT CONDITION,COMES WITH THE CAGE,,LOADS OF FEATURES LIKE,D-BASS,RDS,SEEK ECT........
ONLY PROBLEM IS IT DOESNT WORK?????WHEN YOU SWITCH IT ON IT MAKES A WHIRRING NOISE??MAYBE A CD STUCK?? IM NOT SURE?..SO STARTING BID £1!!!!!!!"
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He's thinking that he's selling sh*t on ebay and people will buy anything...even if it's broken! :)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3021467641
SOB
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^ Yegads....
Here's another type of ad that I've stumbled onto... It's about the third one I've seen like this. Basically ya've got this hi-tech bleeding edge gadget that's worth quite a bit, but selling for cheap (in the last case, a car cd player that also plays DVDs on a color screen - for 65 bucks). The description write-up is looooong. At the bottom of the write-up is a sentence that says (roughly):
"This auction is for information on where to get the product for 65 dollars, not for the actual product."
The ads I've seen like this were 10 times more busy with bids than the usual ads...
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That's really not cool!
If you feel like taking the time, you should report him to E-bay.
They'll pull the auction down.
They've done it to me twice.
Once beacuse I was selling a WWII german helmet, and it had a swasticka on the side. (Not allowed to sell anything with a swastika on it)
The other time because I was selling a BB gun. You can't sell anything that fires a projectile (But people sell those soft pellet guns all day long.:rolleyes: )
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Here's the guy's explanation:
"This Auction is not for the actual product but for a site where you can get it for $65 dollars, sound to good to be true? let me explain!
You enter into a Matrix, and pay 60$ for the information package, and when enough people enter the matrix, a free gift, being the clarion vrx935vd, retailing for more than $2000 is passed down, so this make the sellers able to make money, and you get your product, it just takes a bit longer, good luck, this is worth the wait and saving over $2,000."
I couldn't see any place to report it Muck, but if you want to here's the URL:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10368&item=2417612885
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Originally posted by funkedup
Yeah and they make you crave dick too.
Funked the distrubitor I work for also distee's Apples, seperate division but we share the same branch office. I tell you you nailed it on the head. The amount of wierdo dyke ghey vegetarian whale hugging Apple owners in is astounding. Last week one of their customers came in to say 'bye' (with a limp wrist and all) - hes off to Amsterdam, to get married, to his male partner.
Oh well at least the FDB's will have a new toy.
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Don't bother Nash/Muck. Safe Harbor/Ebay doesn't give a sh*t unless it violates someone's copyright or licensing agreement and that specific person/business contacts them, or it breaks a law, or it threatens to offend someone - in other words, anything that could cost them money. Ripping their customers off is OK, provided they get their fees.
SOB
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Ah well... I reckon it's economic darwinism at work anyway... If yer dumb enough not to read the thing completely then ya get what's coming to ya.
Ok, found something I want to bid on (pair of small 3.5" car speakers). Now how does this work? (btw, I have a Paypal account set up, as well as Visa.)
Here's what the bid area looks like:
Current bid US $9.99 Starting bid US $9.99
Quantity 1 # of bids 0 Bid history
Does this mean that the seller has set the price at $9.99, and all I have to do is bid $10.00... rechecking the site periodically to make sure someone hasn't come along with a higher bid?
Also, and this is a bit confusing.... The box where you enter the bid, it's called the 'maximum bid', and is explained that eBay will bid incrementally on your behalf up to your maximum bid, which is kept secret from other eBay users.
So... Lets say I want to pay no more than 25 bucks, and I want eBay to keep thwarting other bid attempts until it reaches 25 bucks. The question is, if I enter $25 as my bid, what will my actual starting bid be?
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Thats easy Nash.
There are no bids at this time. You enter $25.00 as your max. bid, and the opening bid will be $9.99
Now, if no one else bids, you get it for $9.99 when the auction ends. You should check it periodically, but I just enter the most I'm willing to pay, and check once in a while.
Now, if say, I come and want the item, I'll have to bid at leat $10.50. I'll place my bid, but you have a max. bid in at $25.00, so the computer will come in auto and enter a bid for you at $11.00. If the auction ends here, you pay $11.00
The comuter will keep bidding for you to beat other bidders until someone bids $25.01. That's above you're max, and you're out unless you come in and bid again.
Once the auction is over, check the shipping costs (Actually, I do this before I bid...don't get killed on shipping. Ask the weight of the item, how it's shipped and where from (ZIP code). Then go to USPS.com or wherever and calculate the shipping to make sure the seller's not robbing you.
Once you've got a shipping rate, click the "PAY NOW WITH PAYPAL" button on the auction page, enbter the info, and you're all set.
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Originally posted by Animal
I have never sold anything there, but I buy all the time.
Yesterday I bought a 15GB iPod because there is no way to make any company ship that outside the continental US.
is that an MP3 player?:confused:
hey-try to drag over the smilies (like when selecting text) to see their hidden faces :)
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Cool - thanks!.. that answers everything.
But this raises another question. In your example, where you come by and bid $10.50... What happens to you? Because my $25 max bid will automatically put the bid at $11, leaving you out of luck. When you enter your bid, does it say "thank you very much"? Or does it say "thanks but that bid is no good - keep trying".... and you keep entering higher bids until yu've surpassed my max bid?
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Yup udet - they're MP3 players. I've got a 15 gig iPod too. They're amazing. It holds 7,500 songs, and the audio quality is fantastic.
have a look: http://www.apple.com/ipod/
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Says keep trying, you have been outbid....
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Another, different question muckmaw....
Using your example above, lets say you bid higher than my initial $25 max bid. For example, you bid $26.
Can I change my bid after that happens? If so, what if I change my bid to a max bid of $30. Will it automatically make my bid $26.50, and increase my bid automatically if/when needed? Or is my bid now just $30?
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Ah rgr Creamo - thanks.
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Yep Nash, it always sets your bid to the next highest incriment, regardless of what you bid. You could bid $1,000, and it would still just kick the bid up by one incriment. Also, if you bid once, and then decide you'd like to up your bid, you can bid again - provided no one else has bid on the item since your initial bid, the price won't go up at all.
Now, if you find something that you really want to purchase on ebay, I say the best course of action is to snipe it. That means bidding on the item at the last second, so as not to give anyone else the opportunity to bid after you. I treat it the same as any other bid. I bid as much as I'm willing to spend, and just bid that amt in the last few minutes/seconds of the auction. If you can't be there toward the close of the auction, you can use a service called esnipe - http://www.esnipe.com - to make the bid for you.
And like Muck said...ALWAYS check the shipping. It really can get rediculous.
SOB
BTW...For Car audio stuff stay away from seller id "Scala1", aka IkeSound. I purchased my car stereo from this guy...the deck was new, but was defective on arrival. Three calls to his 800 # later (he wouldn't accept email correspondence after the sale) and not a peep from him. I left him negative feedback, and then got negative feedback from the sh*thead. Fortunately, I got the deck repaired at no cost through a Pioneer authorized service dealer.
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Thank you sir!
Off to the races then...