You HAVE to try this!! EBAY your way to DISNEY!!

[Mrs. Snowgod]

Originally posted by Cindy B
Okay all you ebay professors!

I have a few questions for you.
Where and how should I list these items...

1) Its a vintage (probably late 60's/early 70's) insert and instructions from a Kitchenaid mixer--its full color, no fading..its like a trifold brochure

2) a receipt for a Crartsman toolset from November 1962. Its a sheet of paper about 8.5 x 11 with stamp type things on them, instead of a register receipt. It has receipt and warranty information in the center with the purchase stamps around the middle. Would this be listed under vintage Craftsman (ie tools ) or under advertisments, or an other category?

3) instruction/directions/purchase packet for a Country Gold (can you say 1970's?) Amana dishwasher. full color, and receipt.

4) I also have five sporting magazines (Grays Sporting News) ranging from 1951 to 1972. Most of the players featured were either college bowl players, (ie Fran Tarkenton in his college years), and there is one baseball issue. This baseball issue feature the 1956 World Series in an article.

Honestly, I was not born until 1970, so I don't know who the "hot" players were then. I have only heard of one the players.. he was a Chicago Bear...

So it is better to list these as a lot, or individual issue, or should I cut them up (GASP!) and sell the advertisments.!

Thanks!

Sounds like some cool stuff, and for your receipts/brochures, I'd go with a double category listing, like:
1) Collectibles/Advertising/Household/Appliances or Other Household,
and
2) Collectibles/Postcards & Papers/Brochures/1960 - present

For your sports magazines, I'd do searches on the title (maybe you have, and gotten nothing, which could be very good), and also on some of the individual names of the players featured. Check off the box by "in titles & descriptions" in your search criteria for the players' names. See what comes up and analyze from there.

Given that the mags are from a range of 3 decades, I would go to the trouble of listing them separately (or by decade, anyway), depending on how close in date some of them are to each other.

I'd also describe in detail as many of the articles or at least players' and teams' names as you have time to do in your descriptions. With the old electronics magazines I sold, I listed all the articles with as many of the technical terms as I could, and I had one $5.99 lot of 4 magazines sell because of one article alone.

If the ads look really good, do some searches on them. It may just be worth it to cut them, but that will be a hard choice to make. You could potentially list the ads in your description and include the really unique ones in your selection of pictures.

Also, if you have access to a scanner, use that for the pictures.

Have fun - sounds like a bunch of stuff with potential!

 

[Cindy B]

That is very helpful Ms. Snowgood.....

I have run the searches on titles and have gotten nothing. I just wasn't sure if it was more profitable to sell the magazines or cut the ads.. there are some ads, and the inserts in the magazine (you know those annoying cardstock things).. have something about the new magazine called, Sports Illustrated!

Its an interesting magazine, and there are 5 of them.

 

[Tamie]

dg39 - the Lady needs to contact Discover Card. If there is a disputed charge they will put a hold on it (not charge interest), check it out then make a final decision on that item. From the sounds of it, you have everything to back yourself up along with Ebay and Paypal stating the same. I cant see how you will be help responsible. If she paid through paypal, they have the accurate records.

I would not worry about it, well not much, and let her and her credit card company sort it out.

Good Luck

 

[Madi100]

HELP.....I just got an e-mail from a buyer who I sold 2 dresses to back in Sept. She just e-mailed saying that her Discover Card was billed twice. I only got paid once. Am I looking at a problem about to come. I just checked my records and the total for both dresses came to $63.00. I had 2 seperate auctions running and she won both. The first dress went for 28.00 and the second dress went for 26.00. I gave her a reduced shipping of 9.00 for both dresses. What do I tell her to do...PLEASE HELP A.S.A.P......

I used to be a manager in a retail store. We had one very angry gentleman (I use that term VERY loosely) call our store because his credit card was double charged. He called me and told me that we charged him twice. I did everything I possibly could. I called his bank (maybe it was debit), I found out that the double charge was his bank's fault. However, there was still nothing I could do because I don't have the authorization to give a credit. The first place she should go is to Discover. They are the ones who will help her. If there is a double charge on her card, then they will figure it out. That is what they are paid to do. Unfortunately, not all people are rational people. They want to balme someone. They jump to conclusions, and are quick to fault people. So, if you have one of those people, just know that you didn't do anything wrong. You have spent time and effort on this trying to figure out what happened. There is nothing else you can do to help this person. They have to do it on their side now. I spent over three hours on the situation I had. In the end, it was figured out, but the man was still not happy, because he had to put some work into it.

I don't think there is a way that they would ever give her all of her money back. It's very obvious a double charge. Good luck, and let us know what you find out.

 

[Mermaid 3]

if someone won my auction, but I didn't hear from them. I sold my first two items and the one item was paid for the day after the auction ended (by another buyer). So I was expecting to hear from the other buyer at least by the 2nd day. This is the 3rd day and nothing. I sent him 2 e-mails and an Invoice. Do I assume he is not going to pay and just relist the items? Or do I offer it to the next highest bidder. I saw an option on e-bay to offer the item to the 2nd highest bidder if I have another of the same item to sell. Did anyone ever run into this problem before? The prospective buyer has all positive feedback so I don't know what to think. Your comments are appreciated since this is my first experience with e-bay selling. When I purchased from someone else, I always contacted them immediately to let them know how I was going to pay them, so I expected others would do the same. Should I worry yet?

 

[DMRick]

eBay suggests waiting three business days, and then sending them an eBay reminder. Once you do that, I give them 7 days to respond (and I usually pull their contact info and call them), and then send out the first non paying bidder notice. I follow that up in 10 days with the final fund request notice. Anytime between the first notice and requesting your funds, you can offer it to the second bidder, or relist.

Some people have "stuff" happen. A sick child, a computer crash, a fire near their home and they must evacuate. I think it's only fair to wait a full 7 days..and then if you don't hear anything, relist.

I just had one person who got a computer virus, and it took him a while to get back to me. His feedback was all good, so I figured it must be something he couldn't control.

 

[Mermaid 3]

for your advice. I will wait until tomorrow and send him a reminder. I'm brand new at this, so I'll learn as I go along, but I really like it!!! I am going to clean out my house. I told my DH that if he comes home from work someday and can't find his favorite chair, to check ebay for it.

 

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

Mermaid 3-

I had a number of items end this past Sunday. All but two paid with Paypal within the first 2 days of my sending an invoice. The last two contacted me yesterday and today that they would be mailing money orders.

I've had to resolve myself to realize that not everyone is as compulsive about checking email as I might be. I check my inbox multiple times a day, but some folks may only check once a week or so.

I was about to send a reminder to the last buyer, but she responded today before I got around to it. I would also suggest giving just one more day. If you don't get a response by say 5pm, send a reminder. I would then allow 24 -48 hours for the buyer to respond before obtaining contact info (if it was my auction).

 

[disneychrista]

Originally posted by iNTeNSeBLue98
I've had to resolve myself to realize that not everyone is as compulsive about checking email as I might be. I check my inbox multiple times a day, but some folks may only check once a week or so.

This is very true, but one would think if someone bid on something they would check to see if they won the auction and contact the seller? I could not imagine waiting a week to see if I won and to contact the seller. Though I am sure we all have had buyers who do .

 

[Mermaid 3]

I guess I'm just anxious b/c it was my first sale on ebay. There were bidders up to the very last minute, so I'm sure the winner knew he won the item. They were bidding back and forth, it was very exciting, but I was sure the winner would contact me immediately, since he obviously seemed determined to get the item. Go figure. Maybe now he decided he spent too much. He bid much more than my starting price. I wish people wouldn't bid if they are not serious.

I still think it is a great idea though and I am so glad I came across this thread!!!! I will keep selling my way to Disney!

I'll be back to talk with you again. I have alot of reading to do to catch up on how everyone else is doing and maybe get some more ideas.

Pixie Dust to all!!!

 

[dg39]

Thanks for everyones imput on this problem. I haven't heard anything today from the buyer, ebay or paypal. As soon as I hear anything I'll post to let you know whats going on. I figure no news is good news, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks again,

Denise

 

[DMRick]

This is very true, but one would think if someone bid on something they would check to see if they won the auction and contact the seller?

Some people put their highest bid in and don't go back to the auction. He may just check his email once a week and will see your notes then. It may look like he was bidding, but so many of us use automatic everything, he may have been doing that.
Doris
Upstate NY

 

[Samandmom]

I posted a few weeks ago about a gentleman from Tawain winning one of my auctions. His money order from bidpay came in. The address from bidpay says his mailing address is in Tawain, but he sent me an email with a mailing address in California. The email I got from bidpay said to notify them if the buyer wants the item shipped to another address. I emailed bidpay TWICE but NO response. This has been about two weeks since I recieved the money order.
Anyone ever have a problem with bidpay not emailing you back. I am worried this man will give me a negative feedback. I think I will email bidpay back for the third time.

 

[cpl100]

I have a question which I hope is not considered too personal a question. If it is too personal for you, please just ignore it; but perhaps a few can share with me.

I see everyone's great success on Ebay and tremendous profits. I am wondering how many items you all list per week to get such a profit and how much time it takes you. I know that Sunday and Thursday are the best days to list. But is there a best time for the auction to end? (East Coaster here...) I just began last week and listed four items (3 sold) and five items this past Sunday (2 of which have bids). I have a small mountain of stuff here that I'd like to remove from my house but it is very time consuming to say the least. Tonight I have pulled out some things to list tomorrow but it takes forever to research the items to get an idea of a good listing price and a guess at shipping. (Yes I confess to using other listings to base my shipping for now.)

I have been lured in by all the 'ebay to Disney' success of others and confess to be totally hooked with the idea. It seems I am spending more than I am making by being on Ebay so much. (Okay, so I am lured in by the great deals of others' too!

Thanks in advance to all who are willing to share!

 

[Mrs. Snowgod]

Originally posted by cpl100
I have a question which I hope is not considered too personal a question. If it is too personal for you, please just ignore it; but perhaps a few can share with me.

I see everyone's great success on Ebay and tremendous profits. I am wondering how many items you all list per week to get such a profit and how much time it takes you. I know that Sunday and Thursday are the best days to list. But is there a best time for the auction to end? (East Coaster here...) I just began last week and listed four items (3 sold) and five items this past Sunday (2 of which have bids). I have a small mountain of stuff here that I'd like to remove from my house but it is very time consuming to say the least. Tonight I have pulled out some things to list tomorrow but it takes forever to research the items to get an idea of a good listing price and a guess at shipping. (Yes I confess to using other listings to base my shipping for now.)

I have been lured in by all the 'ebay to Disney' success of others and confess to be totally hooked with the idea. It seems I am spending more than I am making by being on Ebay so much. (Okay, so I am lured in by the great deals of others' too!

Thanks in advance to all who are willing to share!

My listing practices have not been really consistent, but I certainly understand your concerns. I've tried to have anywhere from 8 to 20 items going, some ending Thursday, some Sunday. The length of auction varied by my needs and the nature of the item.

Right now, I just returned from a trip to FL, and am studying for an exam I need to take for work (NASD Series 6 - it's hard). I have nothing listed currently, but a bunch of stuff to sell for the upcoming holidays. Tonight I plan to relist all the stuff I have on hand that didn't sell over the past 3 or 4 months. The listings are saved on Turbolister, and I plan to just tweak the listings and upload, hopefully investing less than an hour for a dozen or so listings. Once I get some momentum from that (read: bids!), I know I'll be inspired to create new listings for the rest of the stuff.

I found, and perhaps you will too, that after a while the time investment leveled off as I got more proficient and developed an organized system. Also, don't forget to relist! Identify the text you use over and over and save it to copy and paste as needed - both for your descriptions and for your correspondence to winners (and NPB 'losers', too!).

After a while, you'll find that a consistent approach will pay off steadily, with an occasional lousy week offset by the WOW items that sell for way more than you expected.

Hang in there! It will get better.

 

[Mermaid 3]

I was lured in, also with the whole idea of earning money for Disney. I love the idea of cleaning out my house. I have a small mountain here, too. But I found out it does take alot of time b/c I am new and don't know much about listings or shipping charges.

Mrs. Snowgod says we'll get better as we go along!

So we will have to develop a system. What is the reason to list on Thursday and/or Sunday. Do you mean have the auctions end on those days? And I have another question - is it best to list for 7 days? I notice no one usually bids until the last day anyway.

I confess I have always bought things on e-bay, it is such fun, but now I want to make money and SELL!

Have a great day. Hope to talk to you all later.

 

[dg39]

I normally try to have all my auctions end on any night except Fri. or Sat. I feel alot of people after a long work week go out on those nights to unwind, have a nice dinner, a few drinks, or anything else people with an exciting life do. I for one have no life, with 3 kids, 2 of which are teenagers always going out or away and find myself at home waiting for a phone call "I ran out of gas, I'm lost, I'm going to be late, etc" and all the other EXCUSES teens give to give there parents a heart attack. LOL....
Sunday nights after dinner and giving little ones baths, getting them ready for school the next day, alot of people are on line, looking, lurking and BIDDING. When I list and want to give that item alot of exposure because I think its a hot item, I will list for 10 days, making sure it ends on a Sunday night. I end my auctions anywhere from 7pm to 10pm. I'm on the east coast & I know those times aren't really good for west coast bidders, but I like to package up the item right after the auction ends so I can get it to the post office the next morning. Then I'm tired & go to bed. I still don't have a system with going to the post office. I'm one of the few who doesn't use stamps.com, so I have to go and wait in line. When sales are good, sometimes I'm at the post office 3-4 times a week. I HATE GOING TO THE POST OFFICE. I'm alittle leary of stamps.com, because if I'm alittle off with the postage, I'm afraid the buyer will have to pay the additional $$ upon delivery of the item. I have a dr's. scale thats accurate, but I like for the post office to weigh and determine the amount. I went to NYC yesterday and the stores (MACY's,etc.) are all getting ready for the holidays. Decorations are starting to be put up, and Macy's is getting ready for their parade. Hopefully xmas on ebay will be in full force and ALL OUR SALES ON EBAY will skyrocket. So, lets all go in our closets,attics, and basements, and dig, dig,dig, for our auctions..GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY....

 

[maggiew]

Here is my experience on listings. I have only been doing this since the end of July, so I am not an expert. But I have made about $800 for our Disney trip this Thanksgiving. I have mainly sold outgrown clothes of my two girls. I did pretty well at back to school time. Right now I have about 4 years worth of Christmas dresses up from the girls and those are doing well too.

Anyway, it seems that I have fallen into the routine of listing on Sunday nights. The listings end the next Sunday. I spend the next week getting the checks/money orders, etc. Then I list again the following Sunday. So I list one week, take one week off to finish those up. Then list the 3rd week. It was so confusing for me to have listings going and have to deal with winning bidders. I also have a full time job and 2 elementary school girls who are into everything (band, choir, soccer, brownies, etc.) so my time is quite filled up. I try to get a few listings ready on Turbolister at night after the girls are in bed. Then when Sunday rolls around, I am ready to just upload those and don't have to spend much time on Sunday night.

I also do not use stamps.com. I do use the USPS shipping assistant to print my priority labels and get free delivery confirmation. I have a post office half a block away from where I work, so I often walk down there on lunch hour. I usually go about every other day it seems because paypal payments and checks trickle in.

To minimize my buying on eBay while I am "researching" starting prices for my own items, I transfer my paypal balance to my checking account after I have $50 in it. I found that when I had money in my paypal account, it was soooo easy to bid on stuff. So, if I don't have money in the paypal, I think twice about bidding. This seems to work.

Hope this helps.

Maggie

 

[Sally Bradley]

From the "difficulty" department. Here's one you probably won't believe...

I purchased a sweater on ebay and sent payment via Paypal within minutes of the auction close. I emailed the seller to let her know I had paid...and asked her to let me know when she mailed out the sweater. That was Oct 15th. Weeks go by and I hear/see nothing. So I emailed her...probably 5 times. Got NO response whatsoever...so I go in and started looking thru her feedback. This unresponsiveness has apparently happened before. So, early this week with no sweater and no response, I asked for her personal info from ebay and at the same time sending her a very emphatic email, asking her to respond. She finally did...saying she had mailed the sweater. I told her I had not received it. To make a long story short, she offerred to either send me a different sweater or issue a refund. I request the refund.

A day later, she sends me an email telling me her husband had in fact never mailed the sweater,as she had insisted he did. I told her I still wanted the refund...so she started the process (paypal said it was being "processed" and would take 4 days to clear). So last night, I get an email from her telling me she noticed I had never paid for it! I most certainly did and immediately responded, copying the info I had from both my Paypal account and ebay, showing proof the item had been paid for Oct 15. Now I look on Paypal, and she has apparently stopped payment on my refund and won't respond!!!

So now what do I do???? I have her phone number and plan on calling her...but do I have any other recourse?

The best part of this is her listing included a plea to would-be buyers telling them she was selling off her "stuff" because she and her family had been so hard hit by the recent hurricane in NC. Come to find out when I get her personal info she lives in Pennsylvania!!!! How misleading!

Any suggestions would be appreciated...
Sally

 

[Mermaid 3]

So your advice really helps me out. I have been in my closets, basement and everywhere I can think of to get items ready for sale on ebay. I am going to NYC this Saturday, so I won't even know how my auctions end until Sunday. Dumb me, 5 of my auctions are ending Sat. night. So now I'll know better when I do my next listings. Christmas is coming and I think ebay will be going strong. Here's hoping we all do fantastic with our sales!!.
Let's sprinkle a little pixie dust on our listings.