Monday, January 30, 2017

Snow Globes and Disney: A Winning eBay Combination!

I am excited to share with you today how selling snow globes and Disney items on eBay can bring in good money. Last week I was fortunate enough to find an item that was so awesome, it combined both Disney and snowglobes to show me the money!!!

Treasure Hunting at Goodwill

I was at a Goodwill in Dawsonville, Georgia and happened to be near the end of my treasure hunting experience for the day. This is the time I start getting a bit weary. If you source items to sell on Bay at thrift stores you probably know what I am talking about. Your brain is filled with the many items you have been searching through to find just the right treasures that will boost your eBay income. Your eyes are a bit blurry. You've accessed your phone so many times to check comparative eBay listings that you hope you have enough to get you through the end of the month...

The Day's Best Treasure

And there it was...a Disney Princess Jasmine picture frame with a snowglobe just sitting on a shelf with the other knick knacks and doo dads...the creme de la creme of Disney items. But guess what...I didn't even realize it when I saw it. I just picked it up because I had heard Disney items and snowglobes sell well on eBay. And I noticed the snowglobe after I picked it up.

When I looked it up on the eBay app on my phone (and please tell me that when you are shopping for eBay treasure at thrift stores and Goodwill that you DO search for comparable listings on eBay BEFORE you buy them???) I was amazed at what I saw.

This particular version of this item was listed at, and sold for anywhere from between $21.95 to $75.00!!! Crazy don't you think? Below is a list of some of the reasons it was commanding so much money:

*It's a Disney product

*It also has a snow globe on it

*It's been discontinued so that means there's a limited amount of these items available

*It's in very good condition

Always Shop on Discount Day to Save Money

I took it to the register with the rest of my purchases and because it was Senior Day (55 and over here in GA), instead of paying the $6.98 marked, I paid $5.23. Once home I was unsuccessful in wiping the price off the bottom of it. So, rather than face rude comments about how much I paid for it and how much I was selling it for, I crossed the Goodwill price off with a permanent marker. When listing it, I would describe it as "price on bottom blacked out with marker." In the listing, I wouldn't say I had personally done this so chances are no one would complain.

Take the Middle Price on eBay

I don't know if you have heard but as far as listings go, if you want to sell an item on eBay, it's best not to be the highest price, not the lowest price...the highest price is probably not going to sell your item if buyers can see they can get it less expensively from someone else. And pricing your item the lowest will often not result in a sale either because people think there must be something wrong with it if you are selling it dirt cheap.

And so I decided to list it at auction for a price of $34.95 to start. If it didn't sell in the first round, I knew I could always drop the price the next time I listed it.

Auction Results

Since this auction was a 10-day listing, I honestly did not pay much attention to it for the first few days. But 48 hours after listing it I saw that it had a bid at $34.95! I was thrilled and would have been very happy with that price for it. BUT the next few days brought in a flurry of excitement as 12 more bids came in and it ended up selling for $51.00! Plus, they paid for shipping so all together, the buyer paid $63.95 for a Disney Princess picture frame with a small snowglobe on it.

Here's a breakdown of how much I earned in profit:

Paid $5.59 (includes sales tax)

Sold for $51.00

Minus the $5.59

Minus the 15% for eBay and Paypal fees equals a profit of $35.82

eBay Buyer's Motivation

Would I ever pay this much for a Disney picture frame snowglobe? No. Would you ever pay this much for this same item? Probably not, but you never know what a buyer's motivation is. Someone out there may have a daughter who had this same item and lost it and is heartbroken. Or maybe they had this item as a child and loved it but it broke. You know what they say, "One man's trash is another man's treasure." And here's a case that proves it.

Make Sure to Check Item Prices on Your Phone Before Buying

So the next time you are at Goodwill, the Salvation Army, Savers, or any local thrift store, keep in mind that Disney items and snowglobes sell very well. Don't forget to check the current listings and sold listings on the eBay app on your phone before buying the item, though. It can save you a lot of money and anquish because you don't want to spend money on an item and then get it home and look it up on eBay and find it's not worth anything. After all, the reason to sell on eBay is to make money, not to lose money.

Have you sold anything on eBay lately that surprised you because it sold for so much money?

Happy thrifting,

Karen

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Making Money With EBay While on Vacation

Making Money While You Sleep?

I have always dreamed of making money while I sleep. Being an entrepreneur at heart I thought it sounded like a great way to earn money. I wanted to set up a business and figure out how I can have that business make money for me while I am sleeping. Not only did I find that with eBay, but I also found out how to make money while on vacation! If you are an eBay seller, or you would like to be, pay attention here because eBay can make you money while you are on vacation!

Making Money With eBay in Vacation

Recently my husband and I went on a two-week vacation. Normally when we go away, I put my eBay store on vacation, and make sure that none of my items are visible to customers while we are away. I also make sure all of my auction items have ended. My feedback score is at 100% with a score of almost 600 and I didn’t want to mess that up by having people buy things while I am away and my not being able to send their purchases out if we were away from my eBay items. But I recently found a way to circumvent that problem.

If you have an eBay store, and you are going to put your eBay store on vacation, you can bulk edit all of your listings to lengthen your shipping time. This means if you have something sell while you are away, and you set the time to allow you to have time to ship it when you return from vacation, you are covered by eBay and people can’t give you negative feedback scores because you shipped late. In fact, under your listing, it even says how much time it will take for the item to ship. And did you know that the shipping time counts business days only? That’s right, Sundays and holidays aren’t included in eBay shipping time. So here is what I did: I set my shipping time to 15 days on all my items. Because we were gone 2 weeks, which is 14 days, and there were two Sundays included in that time period, that allowed me 3 days to pack any items that sold and get them to the post office and shipped out after we got back.

The First Week of Vacation

The first week we were at a hotel where we had internet access. I was thrilled to sell three items that week and after each sale. I sent the buyer a message thanking them for their purchase and telling them I was away and would ship the item when we returned and gave them a shipping date.

The Second Week of Vacation

On the second week we were on a cruise and due to the high expense of purchasing internet minutes on a cruise, I decided not to check my eBay store while we were away!This also gave me a much-needed break from selling on eBay. If you are like me, sometimes eBay can seem to take over your life! You can imagine my surprise and excitement when I checked my eBay store when we hit dry land…

Total eBay Sales While on Vacation

With 425 items listed, I sold 8 items with a total purchase price of $198.96!

And I didn't do anything to earn it except sleep and enjoy my vacation! I did have to take shipping and eBay costs out of that total, but I still cleared approximately $125.00 while I was on vacation. And part of that money was earned while I slept. So not only did I learn to make money while I sleep but also I earned money while on vacation!

If you don’t have an eBay store, and you are taking a short vacation, you can still set the shipping times on your items to the longest amount eBay will allow that will cover your time away. Otherwise, you will have to make sure all of your listings have ended before you leave in order to keep happy customers and a good feedback score!

Do you make money while you sleep or when you are on vacation with eBay?