Selling on Ebay

I'm bored to tears here at work.  Believe me, I have plenty I could be working on, but I just don't want to do it.  Mindnumbing menial tasks.  Some of it I will eventually just throw off on my secretary.  Poor woman.  She is really good at her job and keeps me in line, but I give her some real crap work to do some times. 

Anyway, bla bla bla, on to Ebay. 

My wife and I are planning a trip to Europe in a couple of weeks.  My wife, being the OCD organization and planning queen that she is, has lists for the lists of stuff we need to do.  Pie charts, flow charts, bar graphs, and lists of things to get and do before we leave.  She actually has a master list with all the smaller lists on it.  She's a freak and I love her for it. 

About a month ago she decided (based on her bar graph and flow chart relating to current and projected savings) we need to have more money for the trip than we already do, including what we plan to save for the next few weeks before our trip.  Personally, I don't understand the reasoning, but whatever keeps her happy.  Besides, I do agree with the fact that it never hurts to have too much saved. 

So the wifey decides, in order to have more than enough money for our trip, we need to get back in the Ebay business.  When we first got married we were dirt poor.  We lived on my pitiful salary alone and had next to nothing.  We lived in a little nothing of a rural town in southwest Tennessee.  Little did we know it, but we were sitting on a gold mine.  Apparently vintage clothes, shoes, purses, etc. is a big business, especially in the larger metropolises.  This little town we lived in had three thrift shops in it that sold donated items.  Being a typical older rivertown, there were two classes of people, for the most part- the old money river baron families, and everyone else.  These little hole in the wall thrift shops were packed to the gills with these vintage clothing items that absolutely no one wanted.  The river baron families got rid of it and most everyone else didn't want their hand outs.  Long story short, we opened up shop on Ebay selling lots (as in one auction for multiple items) of vintage clothes.  It took some time to figure the inner workings of it out, but eventually we got the hang of it.  Over the course of 6 months we made roughly 85 sales.  95% of those sales were for a net profit of at least 10x what our initial investment on the item or items was.  Our coup de grace, and final sale while we were living there, was a "cleaning out inventory" sale.  We were getting ready to move and had to get rid of everything.  So we ended up selling approximately 135 "vintage" items as one lot.  Final price including shipping? $388!  Our cost including shipping? $43  Pretty good deal if you ask me.  All told we eventually netted roughly $2000 from our Ebay experience.

So now we are back in the Ebay game.  We spent the entire day shopping Saturday.  I hate shopping.  But, when there is a defined purpose such as this, it isn't as bad.  We've already made some sales and have some stuff listed right now.  Tonight and tomorrow we will be listing even more.  So far we are up roughly $300.  It's not a bad way to make money, as long as you keep it enjoyable.

Having gone through all that, I figured I would share a little knowledge with any of you considering selling stuff on Ebay.  Some pointers based on what I have learned so far.  Please do not consider this expert advice or any of these to be hard and fast truths.  There is no such thing when it comes to selling on Ebay.

Helpful Hints for Selling on Ebay:

1. Do your research.  Figure out what the market is on Ebay for what you are going to sell.  Keep in mind that value on Ebay is not what it is in the general population.  I sold an autographed Willie Mays baseball card on Ebay for $110 (Don't freak out.  I had two of them.).  It easily would have brought at least twice that at a baseball card shop.  On the flip side, we sold a 70's Fendi (ask your wife if you don't know) purse for $175.  We bought it at a thrift store for $1.  At a vintage store in a big city it might would have brought $100.
2. Do your research.  Find places in your area that sell what you want to sell for cheap.  If it is like us, find your thrift shops.  Otherwise it is up to you to find your supply.  Keep gas prices in mind if you are having to drive far to find your supply.
3. Don't over price.  I've discovered that under pricing tends to create a bit of a feeding frenzy effect.  We recently sold a vintage Ralph Lauren purse that actually probably wasn't worth more than $20-$30.  A similar purse sold a few days before ours for $25.  They started the bidding for theirs at $20.  We started ours at $5.  It quickly turned into a bidding war between two people.  Buyers get competitive on Ebay.  A low starting price draws them in nad forces them to bid on somethign they don't necessarily really won't.  But, they can't pass up such a good deal.  If they get outbid on the item they feel wronged or insulted at times and will often bid just to make sure the other person doesn't get the item or pays way too much.  We ended up selling that purse for $50. 
4. Keep your listings "clean".  Describe the item or items thoroughly.  Make it pretty and different.  But don't clutter it up.  Don't add unnecessary information.  Skip on the listing themes Ebay provides.  They cost extra and aren't worth the money.  Post enough pictures, but don't add so many that the potential bidder gets tired of scrolling through them all.
5. Make your listing stand out.  I'm not talking about the actual listing people will look at, though.  Most Ebayers just scroll through the pages and pages of listings until something catches their attention.  Make it a witty title.  Always use the gallery picture option and make it a unique picture or way of photographing something.  We have a set background we always use in pictures that is very different and eye catching.  99% of the time there will be more than one of what you are selling on Ebay.  The bidder will need a reason to click on your listing.
6. Sell what people want.  This really just goes back to doing your research and seems kinda obvious, but you would be surprised at the junk on Ebay that goes unsold every day.
7. Don't sell yourself short.  When naming your starting bid, keep these things in mind: 1. What you paid for the item 2. Listing fees 3. Selling fees 4. Paypal fees 5. Cost of gas to get the item 6. Cost of materials to ship the item.  The wifey and I generally pad the shipping by at least $2 to cover all the fees.  This still leaves everything else to be covered by the final price.  But, keep in mind point 3.  If you think it is an absolute lock that your item will sell for a profit, take a chance and start it low.
8. Don't get discouraged.  There is no way you will make money on every item you sell.  It is pretty much a given that at some point some douche will leave you negative feedback.  People will ask you the most ridiculous questions.  All part of the Ebay game, but don't let it get to you.

I am sure there are some things I am forgetting, but this is a good starting point.  If you have any questions, pm me and I will try to answer.  Like I said, I'm no pro at this.  But, I would be glad to help anyone out.

By the way, if you (or your spouse) have an interest in checking us, or our stuff, out on Ebay, our username is "thevintagezebra".  Our only two items we have listed will be ending tonight.  But by tomorrow evening we will have lots of great vintage stuff up, including the only authentic original from the 80's Transformers t-shirt on all of Ebay (all of the others are reproductions made when the movie came out).