Make Money on eBay

Wow, gas prices here are through the roof! When you are on a tight budget, this definitely has an effect on where you go and what you do. Since I am newly freelancing, I’m watching the money that goes in & out like a hawk. It seems like either everybody wants me to do everything I know how to do within a day, or none of it at all for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I’ll post a page soon that has all kinds of brilliant ideas on how to make some extra cash pretty quickly. In the meantime, a little extra may be closer than you think. I’m just amazed sometimes at the things that sell on eBay. I just looked around my house, found some stuff I wasn’t using, and posted it for sale to see what happened.

I was amazed. Now, I had some pretty nice things to sell. A few nice books, some collectibles, some computer parts from my days as a PC tech. All those things sold, which was good. It got some of the clutter out of my house, and I made a little extra money while I was at it.

But, what really surprised me were some of the things that I sold at the highest prices. We have some great dollar stores here, and I shop them regularly for wrapping paper & cleaning supplies. I have also come across some other nice finds, which eventually found their way to eBay. For instance, I had purchased some really cute, decent quality picture frames for my daughter’s room. These went up on eBay when we redecorated, and sold for close to $30 for a set of five. I had also gotten some aromatherapy oil burners that were actually really nice there; These sold for between twelve and fifteen dollars a piece when I finally decided I didn’t need one in every room any more.

I listed a cute wall clock I had bought at a yard sale for a dollar, sold it for $14.00. Some small kitchen appliances I had somehow bought duplicates of, and no longer used sold for between $8 and $10 each. I did pretty well selling my useless junk

Here are some things that I tried that worked the best for me. You should experiment and see what works best for the items you are selling, especially if you have more than one. Good luck, and happy eBay-ing!

• Research comparable items on eBay, and check the closed auctions for comparable items, too.
• Try to list your auctions for approximately the same amount of time other sellers did. Of course, check the length of the auctions on the comp items that sold for the biggest price
• Clarification of above: I found that with small household sorts of items, the sale price was higher if I the auction lasted 5 to 7 days. For things like the computer parts and used electronics, I did much better in a 24 hour auction, or sometimes a 3 day auction.
• Pay attention to what sells the most when! Used kids clothes will sell better at different days and different times than a high end computer. When will your buyers be shopping? You might be surprised at the number of receptionists out there who shop eBay while they answer their phones.
• Ship items in the smallest packaging possible.(Such as shipping a cd in a padded envelope rather than a small box.) I always used the “Calculate Shipping” option, and added a small fee that would cover the cost of packaging.

If you really want to get serious, you can realistically sell on eBay full time. You can start off like I did, and test the waters with things from your own house, or garage sale finds. If you want to buy wholesale or use a dropshipper, check out Salehoo. I used some of the companies listed there, and actually had some really good results. Need help finding out what’s in demand? Auction Inspector may be worth the investment to you. Again, some of the most profitable items may surprise you. Use this tool to find in-demand items, research the cost to you, then check eBay to find out how much they are selling for.

Happy Selling!