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

[wdwpluto]

Hi all!

Just a reminder that Memorial Day weekend is just over a week away! Auctions that end on holiday weekends generally don't do well. So when you're listing, you may want to take that into consideration. Also, people may be away for the holiday weekend, so if you don't hear from your winning bidder for a day or so, that may be why.

Lori

 

[barbnbrian]

In everyone's opinion, what's the best day/time to have your auctions end? I had a bunch end last Sun. evening and did well. Now that I've received most of the payments and have shipped everything, I need to start listing more things. Should I wait to list them so that they end on a weekend or should I just go ahead and list them and have them run for 7 days? Please give me your thoughts. Thanks.

 

[WDWorBUST]

Okay - if you had an item that you could just send regular first class mail would you feel safe doing that? What is the cheapest way to be able to confirm mailing and delivering. If it were you how would you send it? I want to make sure that myself as well as the buyer is protected but as cheaply as possible. Help??

Thanks!
Amanda

 

[barbnbrian]

Well, I didn't get any quick replies, so I went ahead and just started listing more items (see ebay id Barbnbrianct), mostly books and my daughter's Cinderella nite-lite/alarm clock. I've got two Little Tykes items listed and I'm hunting for boxes big enough to ship them in. No bids yet, but plenty of people want to know how much to ship to them. I've got to go to the P.O. tomorrow and get a weight and a better idea of what it will cost to ship. Anyone know if you have a larger item you're selling, what's the cheapest/best way to ship it? I'm selling a Little Tykes rocking chair and don't know what's better, regular Parcel Post or UPS?

 

[dturner]

I have lots of experience in mailing big boxes full of Fisher Price toys that were won on Ebay. The cheapest way is parcel post and that's expensive, cost me a lot more than I charged to get the boxes to their rightful new owners. It's a good idea to see what it will weigh ahead of time, I didn't do that and it cost me some of my earnings, I guestimated and was way off. Also, do yourself a favor and add a delivery confirmation (even if it comes out of your pocket) that way you can prove the box was delivered if your buyer should question it. I sent a package to Germany (my first item sold on Ebay) and I didn't get delivery confirmation, insurance, anything and the German buyer gave me a hard time when the package didn't arrive in 3-4 days, luckily it was delivered but took a lot longer than the 6-8 days UPS said it would take. After that experience I get delivery confirmation on EVERYTHING!!! (costs cents but piece of mind is worth a lot more than that).

 

[waughzee]

My guess is that UPS would be cheaper to send larger items.

 

[dturner]

wdworbust: get delivery confirmation, it's a % of the postage, not expensive at all and you'll know when the package is delivered and can be traced if lost. I get this on all my packages as I learned my lesson with the first package I sent out.

 

[Cinders]

Looks like there are several questions that were answered in the first few pages of this thread so I'll try to help out.

In everyone's opinion, what's the best day/time to have your auctions end?

Auction Calculator

Okay - if you had an item that you could just send regular first class mail would you feel safe doing that? What is the cheapest way to be able to confirm mailing and delivering.

Most times I use first class and print out a delivery confirmation online. The confirmation is cheaper if you print it out before you go to the post office. If the buyer wants insurance then they have to pay the extra charge.

Post Office

Anyone know if you have a larger item you're selling, what's the cheapest/best way to ship it?

If you have the weight and box size you can check postage on the USPS site shown above.

 

[susan137]

Is something wrong with me ....It's taken me all day to list 5 items. How do you guys do it??

 

[dturner]

I get my things together and take all my pictures and then return all items to their proper place, then I download all my pictures, then I go into Ebay and start listing, it can take awhile if your browser is slow, like mine is. I have noticed that off times "late at night" it seems to run faster and I get a lot more done like after 10-11 at night.

 

[WDWKim]

I'm so glad I found this thread..........I think I'm really going to have to give ebay a more serious look. I've bought and sold a couple of things.......but never thought I might be able to save for another Disney trip. I took my kids there in September and ever since we've gotten back I can't wait to go again. However, being a single mom makes it very difficult to try and save money for a trip like this...........but by reading everyone's post makes me actually think it might be possible to go again before they become adults!!! Thanks everyone.........

 

[Robinrs]

I am sooooo proud of myself!!

I FINALLY took the dive!!!

I spent Tuesday morning body surfing under my VERY neat kid's bed to find the stuff he no longer watches, spent yesterday morning taking the pictures of the stuff, and spent this afternoon putting them up on EBAY!!

It was WAY easier than I thought!!! WAY easier!

I am an OVER researcher. I work in advertising so I sort of have an idea about marketing. Checked supply and demand on several types of things. Nixed some, kept records on others. Copied and pasted descriptions to a document, c&p'd the descriptions to the site. Also did some intense research on starting prices and reserves, so we'll see how that works out, also.

Whew... that was WORK! But like my Mom always said NOTHING GOOD COMES EASY!

I am off work now and have the time to do this, I couldn't imagine doing this with a full time job. What a way to get some extra money without a huge payout.

Thanks to everyone for their incredible input! You guys are AWESOME!!

 

[dturner]

WDWKIM: I'm a single income household (DH is the one who stays at home with our son) believe me if anyone knows about not having enough money to go to WDW it's me. I took my DS (just DS and me) for his first time last September and thought it would be awhile before we got back but after starting this Ebaying thing and making so much money, I've got reservations again for this September. You can do it as long as you keep your money separate, I find it a lot easier to keep all the Ebay money in a separate account, that way I'm not tempted to spend it. This thread gave me the encouragement I needed to start Ebaying and I hope you will too.

 

[C.Ann]

I am SOOOOOOOO proud of everyone here!!!!!!!

I just got home from the slave factory (my real job) so I wasn't available to answer the questions that were asked earlier but thanks to my awesome students, extremely helpful veterans of eBay, and all the others that just dropped by this thread today, I'm happy to see that everything is under control!!

I mean is this thread neat - or what?? All of us with a common goal - wanting to go to Disney - whether it be a return trip, or a first trip - and here we are - helping and encouraging each other like we were one big happy family!! Don't want to get all mushy on everyone, but it sure does give me a case of the warm fuzzies.... LOL

First thing this morning I went to the bank and cashed in almost $80 worth of money orders.. I have to sweep out my Paypal account later (probably around $60) and then I have to get really serious about listing some more things!! I forgot all about Memorial Day weekend coming up (Thanks SO much for reminding us Lori ) so I think I would rather have my things start tonight and end next Thrusday night as I'll be going out of town myself..

Keep this thread going and before you know it, we'll about be chattering about our reservations, who is going when, how we're getting there, and on and on......

Yay eBay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Robinrs]

I meant to thank Lori, too, C. Ann. That was a great reminder. I know I will be out of town for Mem Day so I wanted all of my auctions to be over by Thursday next week.

Again, thanks for giving me the gumption to try this, everyone. I have LOTS of stuff to sell from my parent's estate and my son's room and this is a much better way than to have people traipsing through your house!

 

[mom2smjn]

Originally posted by jacksonsmom
This is a great thread!!!

Ebay REALLY works!!!
I made $8,000 last year & early this year just selling on Ebay. I had a lot of fun doing it. I really ran out of things to sell for the moment though! LOL

WOW WOW WOW How did you do so well? That is just amazing!
Was it tons of little things or large purchases?
What types of items did you have the most luck with?
Congrats! Great JOB!

 

[mom2smjn]

Oh I almost forgot to mention.....out of the 20 listings I had (1/2 ended today) 11 have bids! WoW! Thats pretty darn good for me.
3 had more than 1 bid! I am having a blast!

 

[shovelhd]

Which shipper is the cheapest depends on may things. I am in a rural area nowhere near a UPS, FedX, or Airborne depot so anything under 5# I ship via USPS. Anything over 5# I ship via Airborne. If it is small enough that I can fit it into the Airborne drop box downtown I do that. Otherwise I call for a pickup and build this cost into the shipping fees. Airborne has the cheapest pickup charge. This may change when they merge with DHL.

I'm off to bed to get a few hours sleep before our flight leaves at 6:50am. We are an hour from the airport so I'm sure you can figure out that we will be up very early. All of my confirmations are done and we should have a hassle free trip down. The Magic has arrived.

Best of luck to everyone on ebay. I might check in while we are onsite.

Enjoy!!!!

 

[myfairygodmother]

Several posts back someone asked about the Paypal debit card...

...IMHO the Paypal debit card is the best thing since sliced bread!! You can use the debit card anywhere that accepts MC/Visa and also use it to withdraw cash from your account at any ATM. This means that you have IMMEDIATE access to your money 24 hours a day + you can earn CASH BACK on every purchase with the debit card.

As an eBay Powerseller I truely believe that accepting Paypal can/does increase the number of bids that you receive. I very rarely bid on an auction that does not accept Paypal. It's too time consuming to go get a money order or wait for a check to clear, plus Paypal protects me as a buyer when I pay for an auction through Paypal. Not to mention how nice it is when you have 50 auctions close one niight and have 35 payments within twelve hours!! Approx. 80% of my buyers pay through Paypal.

 

[Robinrs]

Have a great trip, shovelhd! I leave next Saturday so I know what you're going through!