Saturday, January 7, 2012

SELL WORTHLESS ITEMS IN A GROUP TO MAKE A GREAT SELL!

It is very difficult to make any money selling single books or a single pair of pants , a single shirt , a single video game , ect...
Unless you have a very hot item you should group together items of little to no value. You might be surprised that someone would want it. 
If you have a single used romance paperback with markings and folded pages, it is worthless. If you have 50 of them you might find that you can get $20 for them. The same goes for used old clothing or games or anything else. If you have one pair of very used blue jeans it will never sell but if you have 5-10 of the same size someone will buy it.
You will never get more than $1 for an out of date sports video game but in a group mixed with other types of games you might get more. 
This method usually works very well if you are patient. Just make sure you are very honest with condition.

FREE BOOK MAKE MONEY BLOGGING

Thursday, January 5, 2012

FREE BOOK FOR EBAY SELLERS!

A free kindle download EBAY 101 FREE on Amazon!
I read this book today. It has a lot of great advice and helpful detailed information starting your business. I do not agree with him on all his advice (he advises loosing money with auctions) but it is still a great book. I highly reccomend it!





Wednesday, January 4, 2012

MY BIGGEST MISTAKE

Do not use auction format! You can sell faster at auction but usually you will not get top price. Find out how much an item usually sells for at auction and then list your item as a Buy It Now for 20% more. Be patient - it may take up to six months to sell but you will sell it eventually for more money. If you must use auctions then start your auction out at 15% lower than normal sell price with a Buy It Now that is 15% more than normal sell price. Most of the time someone will use the Buy It Now to avoid loosing it at auction. There is a certain  item that I sold at auction last year for $27 and this year sold two of them Buy It Now for $65 each!


Only use auction format for extremely hot items that are rare and very few are listed... something you are sure people will fight over. You won't find items like these very often.


If you start your auctions at $1 and hope they do well YOU WILL LOOSE MONEY.


This is the worst mistake I made my first year. Do not be afraid to overprice - you can always discount later. If someone really wants an item they will usually make an offer anyway.


There was another item that I bought for myself for $50 that I wanted to keep. It was worth about $150. My wife wanted me to sell it so (without telling her) I over priced it so it would not sell. After seven months someone bought it for $350! I was not upset at all to sell this item for that price!

MAKE MONEY WHILE YOU SPEND MONEY

You have to spend money to make money. Why not make money while you spend. I have many business expenses such as paying for shipping at the post office , Ebay and Paypal fees, and buying items to resell. I try to always pay with a credit card that has cash back points. These are also lots of cards that offer sign up bonuses. I have recently used 5 or 6 different credit cards that have offers such as :
spend $500 in 3 months and get $200 cash back
Spend $2500 in 3 months and get a $500 Walmart gift card
Spend $3000 in 3 months and get $500 cash back
Get $100 cash back after your first credit card purchase
Get $50 cash back after your first credit card purchase


I use these cards long enough to get the bonus then I change to another  and another and another..... I make over $1000 a year extra using this method!


There are lots of these available - see the following links
http://www.mymoneyblog.com/get-free-100-bonuses-from-credit-card-promotions


http://www.creditcards.com


http://www.cardbenefit.com/credit-cards/sign-up-bonus.htm

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT AN ITEM IS WORTH?

Take Ebay with you. Look up items on your phone if you have 3g web on your phone. I cannot afford this service on my phone so I use the next best thing. I bought the Amazon Kindle with FREE 3G internet. I look up every Item that I am tempted to buy at a garage sale or thrift store on my Kindle and I never have to pay for internet service. I have checked and this is the ONLY FREE 3G SERVICE ANYWHERE. They are very inexpensive and my best investment to date. I go nowhere without it!

WHERE DO I GET ITEMS TO SELL - WHAT DO I BUY ?

I get most of my items from garage sales , resale shops , Goodwill , used book stores , library book sales , donations from friends/family (stuff they do not want or are throwing away), free items on craigslist, other Ebay auctions that are under priced , ect.. You will not make money by buying something at Walmart and reselling it. Do not buy anything that you cannot at least double your money on. Ebay and Paypal both charge fees for you to use their services. These could be as much as 20% of your sell price. You also have to remember that your buyer has to pay shipping as well. This will affect how much you can charge for an item. Sell small items that are inexpensive to ship and use parcel post or media mail / book rate for inexpensive shipping. As you start out only sell items that you know the average selling prices on Ebay or items that you can get for free or a buck or two. Start with something you know about. I started with sports cards and books. As I learn about other things and their value I expand what I look for to buy. The longer you sell the more you will learn. In a few years you will have a broad knowledge of the value of many different categories.

LISTING YOUR ITEMS

When listing your items, be very careful to accurately describe your item. Always include a photo. Do not be tempted to exaggerate or say that your items are in better condition than they really are. I usually understate the item condition so that my customers get more than they expect. You want to avoid problems at all cost (it takes the fun out of selling). I will not go into detail as how to set up your account as EBAY has more than sufficient information and excellent customer service. They offer live online chat and a number where you can talk to a representative that wants to help you make money.

FINDING STUFF TO SELL

While you are getting started you need to stick with items that you can get for free or very very cheap. You might start with items you already have that you no longer want. When I was a teenager and Ebay was brand new I sold my baseball card and autograph collection on EBAY. I was very attached to this collection and it was very difficult to sell but I needed a car more than cards. I had collected for 10 years and had 300,000 cards and 3,000 autographed items. As I began to sell it was very painful at first but gradually a very helpful thing began to happen. I stopped viewing my collection as something to be cherished and began to see it as money. This is what you need to do before starting your business. When you find items to sell , you must see them as money and not as something to keep. That is why it is probably helpful to sell things that you already have at first. You won't make a profit on these items but the psychological effect has a great value when you begin to sell for profit. I made about $10,000 off my collection ( I probably spent that much on it over the years) but it cured me from being a collector or a consumer and made me a seller - a businessman.

INTRODUCTION

I will be giving advice on how to start an EBAY business. I will share my mistakes and the secrets that I have learned along the way. I started selling 2 years ago and if I knew then the things that I know now I could have made more money and avoided many mistakes. This is what I hope to help you with. I like to see people succeed in life. I want everyone to do well for themselves and I hope to be a help to you. I will offer realistic advice and realistic expectations. My first year I only made $100 to $300 profit a month. My second year I have made between $400 and $2000 profit each month just by selling items that I can find in my spare time. As my business grows I hope you will be inspired to give this a try as well. I still work a full time job 50 hours a week and I have a family. Selling on EBAY can make extra even in your spare time. I will be updating this blog at least a couple times a week with very helpful advice. Please check in often.


Ken Archbold