Should I sell items on ebay?

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Nickleanddime

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Jul 21, 2013
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a, ohio
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I never have sold of ebay but I may have a few items finally that's might be best. 3 Maurino glass swans hand blown, 2 Vaseline glass vases , yes they glow, pre 70. A crap ton of avon costume jewelry, looked it up and seen alot of what I have with high first bids, a lees shot shell kit that makes one shell at a time no press needed, a foley hand crank food mill complete, the other stuff ill sell locally since its stuff that will. But the rest would it be worth the fees and stuff for eBay. How much do each charge, eBay and PayPal? And what's best for the glass on shipping calculated or how? Thanks for the help.
 

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Hello. Selling is almost always the best place to sell, hands down. You say you will sell some items locally because they will sell. Anything will sell locally but you will get more on eBay. Forget about about the fees. Price of doing business. Always figure about 13percent total for eBay and PayPal. I had a large bike trainer a couple weeks ago. I didn't want to send it because of the size and weight. I put it on Craig's list at $200 hoping it would sell locally. Also put it on eBay at the same time and same starting price. It sold for $330. I'll send it with that kind of profit. It cost me $75 at goodwill. And it sat there for weeks. All the pros say the same thing. Never have a yard sale. Waste of time. You will do 5 to 10 times better. Ignore the people that ***** about fees. They obviously have never had a real store. In a real store after all expenses you aren lucky to get away with 50-60 percent fees including rent and advertising, utilities, and lots more of your time. That's my 2 cents. Oh, and be careful with the swans. Very hard to pack correctly.
 

Thanks for the info, Im not worried as far as the fees was just wondering what they were. I've been looking and everything but my 2 big swans have bids on them, it's just to hard to ship to fragile. The jewlery is what I'm excited about, avon will definitely be something I look for now, well older stuff. Thanks again for the info. Have a great day.
 

Nickleanddime said:
I never have sold of ebay but I may have a few items finally that's might be best. 3 Maurino glass swans hand blown, 2 Vaseline glass vases , yes they glow, pre 70. A crap ton of avon costume jewelry, looked it up and seen alot of what I have with high first bids, a lees shot shell kit that makes one shell at a time no press needed, a foley hand crank food mill complete, the other stuff ill sell locally since its stuff that will. But the rest would it be worth the fees and stuff for eBay. How much do each charge, eBay and PayPal? And what's best for the glass on shipping calculated or how? Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

With Collectables, I always start on Ebay, then I go to Craigslist and finally I dump at a Garage sale or take it to good will. With new items (I tend to specialize in buying new and used items of USE, like massage attachments for chairs, electronics, books, High Quality Knives, you name it. If it is newer and has a use, I'll give it a try), Amazon is the spot. Sure, it is best to avoid fees, Fees are nothing. When you buy for $1 and sell for $100, I don't worry about the $10 to $20 I have to pay to sell. Even though Amazon costs more in fees, for most new things, the prices you net is much higher, and it is much faster to list. I can put up an entire day's worth of garage sale finds, 15 to 30 items, in less than an hour. Ebay, even using Auctiva, takes about 10 minutes per item.
 

Hey Dejapoo, I've never used amazon. Guess I should try it. It sounds like I buy similar things to sell as you. Can you give some specific examples of items that sell for much more there than on eBay? Just curious because it would give me a place to start checking it out. The way I sell is eBay at auction once or twice , then I raise the price and put it on 30 day by it now. Doesn't matter if it sits on the shelf for a year an only brings in 20-30 bucks. It doesn't cost to relist and only takes about 30 seconds. If you keep about 100 items on all the time, the sales just keep rolling in.
 

I'm like the post above. I don't mind to pay EBay's fees. I'm getting worldwide exposure to sell things I couldn't give away locally. I live in such a unpopulated area. Also, not having the expense of renting a place is a great savings. If you buy at the right price, fees aren't going to kill you at all. Granted I've only been doing this for about 6 months, but sales have increased every month. It's been a lot of fun looking for things and making money as well. Thanks to guys on here, the education on what to look for has been great.
 

As others have said the fees are a cost of doing business.

Protecting items is important. Imagine the look on my face when I received 4 antique Japanese plates and three of them looked like they were used for skeet shooting. Luckily the seller made good and returned my money after I sent photos of the broken plates. Offering insurance to the buyer is a good idea. For shipping glass or porcelain I would wrap in bubble wrap and double box using styrofoam peanuts or paper to protect the inner box.

I just started to collect uranium glass could you post a pic of your vases?
 

Thanks everyone for the info. A couple of new questions, how long is a good time to let them pay 3 or 7 or more? Also I have a 1776 2gram silver token money clip, should I sell seperate or with the other sterling jewelery I have? I have a Native American thin flat bracelet and a small broach and a pair of earrings. I wish I could post pics but it won't let me to this site. Also with it I have a couple representative pins for ohio one from district 62 that is ohio the heart of it all, and a Washington, D.C. Tie pin with chain and 62 at end and a lapel flag that he'd of worn. and i was going to throw in a local prosocutrrs sewing thimble. All are old problay 70's guy was old. Should I sell as one lot or seperate the gov stuff and sterling?
 

Ditto Lost&Found's advice on packing the glass - especially the double boxing. Make sure you leave AT LEAST 2 inches of space (filled with foam peanuts) on all sides between the item and the wall of the box. Otherwise any sharp blow will shatter the glass. Package handlers are notoriously rough on boxes - even if you mark them "FRAGILE".

I usually let me auctions run for 7 days to give more people a chance to see the listing. I don't know if they do it any more but ebay used to charge a small fee for a 10 day auction while the 3 and 7 days auctions had no fee. I just didn't see the value in 3 more days of listing.
 

Don't forget the H in dejapooh... :)

Sure. Text books are one item. They sell for MASSIVE $ if they are newer on Amazon. It may take a while to sell, but BIG BIG $. You have to wait for Text Book Time to come around (january, June, and September). There is no market at all for them on Ebay (High School books do well on Amazon too.

Home goods such as lighting fixtures, thermostats, Faucets and so on generally sit for a while, but sell for a lot more on Amazon.

Sealed new board games. I've sold a new risk for $30, Trivial pursuit for $25 and so on. Only if sealed...

Take your smart phone with you and check the prices by scanning the UPC code (be sure the check the Used price if it is used). I've also done well, buying boxes of books. Check 2 or 3 and get good prices for them, then buy the box. Usually you won't pay more than $5 for a large box of 20 to 30 books, and you can make that back on one. I hit a box of Nursing Texts for $5 and made several hundred out of the box. I hit a large lot of religious texts for Theosophy. I paid $40 and ended up with about 1000 books. About 800 went to good will, the rest are like an annuity. I get $20 to $40 a month... every month, from those last 200 books.

Basic, be careful, fees are HIGH HIGH HIGH and you will lose money on shipping most items that are NOT media mailers. Unless you are doing HIGH volume (40+ items a month), you will be on a basic sellers plan. That is $1.35 plus 15%. That adds up REALLY fast. You can't sell a book for less than $6.99 and still make money. non-book items you should not sell anything for less than $15. Fees and Postage will eat you alive, but things that NEVER will sell on Ebay, sell all the time on Amazon. My best lately was a Bob Dylan book I paid $1 for and sold for $56. Just keep your prices $.50 below everyone else and you are good as gold. I have just over 200 items up on Amazon now. Some will come into season soon (space heaters, air purifiers (HP 17000's are all over the place and sell VERY well).

Good luck.

vwayne1 said:
Hey Dejapoo, I've never used amazon. Guess I should try it. It sounds like I buy similar things to sell as you. Can you give some specific examples of items that sell for much more there than on eBay? Just curious because it would give me a place to start checking it out. The way I sell is eBay at auction once or twice , then I raise the price and put it on 30 day by it now. Doesn't matter if it sits on the shelf for a year an only brings in 20-30 bucks. It doesn't cost to relist and only takes about 30 seconds. If you keep about 100 items on all the time, the sales just keep rolling in.
Click to expand...
 

I just started using half.com It is an ebay company but the rules are simpler and listing is a breeze.
Just enter the books UPC and then in the next screen add a price after they tell you what they are selling for.

I entered 8-10 last week and already sold two $70 & $12
 

I think after these 3 items sell I got on ebay I'm done with it. Ill make my money back I spent on everything and just stick pile for next months flea market. Honestly after much thought I just don't trust the buyers. Was talking to my mom last night and she use to sell all the time. She quit because the buyers were a pain. She'd ship signature on delivery and the people would still say they didnt get it and ebay would take her money back. The shipping is honestly a pain. To high no one buys to low I lose money. I prefer the face to face when I deal with this stuff. I was just trying it out really to see if I like it. Right now it's slowing down because of Christmas and if you don't have something newer with today's soceity no one really wants to receive something used for Christmas. So ill just stick to my comfort zone. Plus it's easier to set sething out and have a hundred people walk by your one item, instead of a million looking at 500 similar items on a web page. I prefer to feel and touch a item to determine its worth when I buy, and alot of people are the same. Thank everyone for their advice and help.
 

If you study like items that have sold and do a similar type auction e-bay can work very well. I sold over a thousand in photo equipment yesterday. I only expected 800. Have not sold glass as their is a lot on there.
 

Nickleanddime said:
I think after these 3 items sell I got on ebay I'm done with it. Ill make my money back I spent on everything and just stick pile for next months flea market. Honestly after much thought I just don't trust the buyers. Was talking to my mom last night and she use to sell all the time. She quit because the buyers were a pain. She'd ship signature on delivery and the people would still say they didnt get it and ebay would take her money back. The shipping is honestly a pain. To high no one buys to low I lose money. I prefer the face to face when I deal with this stuff. I was just trying it out really to see if I like it. Right now it's slowing down because of Christmas and if you don't have something newer with today's soceity no one really wants to receive something used for Christmas. So ill just stick to my comfort zone. Plus it's easier to set sething out and have a hundred people walk by your one item, instead of a million looking at 500 similar items on a web page. I prefer to feel and touch a item to determine its worth when I buy, and alot of people are the same. Thank everyone for their advice and help.
Click to expand...

I am on the verge of just saying "forget it" as far as helping you goes.

You seem like a really good guy and all but with an attitude like that, you are just wasting your own time as well as everyone else's time.

I am referring to the fact that despite receiving countless helpful posts from members loaded with priceless information - you decided that you are "done" with ebay because "shipping is a pain" and you "dont trust the buyers"?

How do you even know anything? You just started out and have not even completed a sale yet, have you? :dontknow:
 

Yep, used textbooks are (one of) my areas of expertise. So there are a lot of textbook marketplaces online. You can try listing in multiple marketplaces which will increase the odds of a quick sale, but if you have a lot of inventory, you will need to manage it via 3rd party software. This software will take listings down when you sell and also update your price to keep it competitive. Some online marketplaces where you can list your books and sell directly to students: Amazon Marketplace, Half.com, Abe Books, Alibris. Alibris publishes periodic coupons that can be applied to your listings, which might help, e.g. they are subsidizing a lower price on your books. Half.com does the same thing in August and possibly January.

The big textbook seasons are August - September and January. This is when you will make the most money and get the most sales.

Some companies will buy the books from you. I don't personally do this, but if you were to score a bunch of newer textbooks, you might be able to turn them over instantly for less money + pre-paid shipping. Examples:

Amazon.com: Sell Your Books
Sell Textbooks Online | Textbook Buyback | Textbooks.com
Sell Textbooks | Chegg.com
 

Déjà pooh,
Thanks for the insight. Sounds like some good solid info. I like the 'innuity" line. That's funny. I often buy things in huge multiples that take a while to sell. I bought about 100 vintage motorcycle magazines for $1 each. They have been selling pretty well for the last 4 months at $12.99 each. Live to find some more

Jerseyben,

I agree with your assessment of nickleandime. There are people and companies selling info like this and making decent money doing it. Everyone here give it freely. I have learned a lot. I've been doing this since 1999. When I was laid off for a year, last year, I was bringing in between $2500-4000 a month. And I certainly wasn't working even 8 hours a day. More like 3 on average. Not counting the endless hours of research on finished auctions at all hours of the night. You can do that when your laid off. In short, this is a fun and VERY easy business to succeed at. If this guy makes $200 at the flea market, he prolly could have made $700-1000 on the same product on eBay. On average I get my items for 10 percent of what I will get for them. It's a pretty neat thing spending 100 and making a 1000. Counting the 100, plus about 130 in fees, that's $770 profit. I love this!!!
 

I'm just saying its not for me after all. If you read a post instead of skimming it you would have seen that. I appreciate all the help that people have have me and based on it I decided to just go the way I know how to make money. Last month I turned 80 bucks worth of stuff intoa 690 return. I just do better at flea markets and Craigslist. I spent 45 on what I have now and already just today after I posted that ,made that back on one item, so I know what I'm doing now the rest is profit and I still have 8 items left to go. It's called getting info and sticking to what you know! You wouldn't take a job welding if you worked in retail all your life would you? Even though everyone says its easy.
When you get out of your comfort zones that's when you get screwed, that's why I decided not to use ebay.
There's more then just those two reasons, but I heard that from more then just 2 people, i make informed decisions. If ebay works for you then use it. But I'll keep making 10 times or more off what I buy and sell it quicker then anyone can on ebay. You dont know what kinda problems someones haveing so you had no right to talk to anyone like that. This isnt my first time flipping stuff i do it all the time. i was just thinking about trying a different venue, and decided not to after all. An assesment of somebody doesnt mean anything unless you meet them in person and get to know them. how can you tell so much about someone by reading some words. as far as you knew that person could just been having a bad moment, or might have a mental issue such as depresion or bi polar? Im glad people can tell so much about someone by never meeting them. also moderator regular members cant send pms to charter members off the mobile site. Again I thank everyone that helped me with the info and I'm sure ill use it sometime.
 

Nothing wrong with deciding not to sell on ebay. I don't have any idea what type items you deal in or what your flea market buyers are like so I don't know if you are leaving money on the table or not. I do know there are a lot of items that will not sell to anyone in my area besides the scrap man that sell on ebay for big bucks. In fact, most of those type items I buy at the flea market/estate sale/yard sale/auction for less than $5.
 

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