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

[lalapodip]

Thanks for continuing to urge us on C.Ann! I have tomorrow off and I plan to FINALLY sit down and DO IT!! DH is my official photographer, so we will be working on it together. I couldn't resist the new Fairy Tale Vacation package for AKL in August - now I have to pay for it!! THANKS! I will keep you updated on my results.

 

[shovelhd]

Paypal request for payment - I send these asap if the buyer inquires, or within 3 days per ebay rules if they don't. I'm still on the fence regarding paypal premier. I will ride out the personal account for the next few months and then decide if it's worth going back for good. I have started a side service business (legally) that is not exclusively for ebay but has an ebay component. That has to be taken into consideration.

What sells - If I told you, I'd have to kill you!!! It depends on so many things, some of which others have mentioned already. I tend to stick to things that I know and understand. That is why I am not an ebay millionaire I also learn a lot from being at the tag sales right at opening. Watch what people buy. Don't assume anything they snatch up right away is for ebay, but then go back and do your research later. Or better yet, take a chance!!! Start with small potatoes and see what sells! You'll never know until you try. Keep the "test market budget" within your threshold of what you are willing to lose. Finally, the guiding principle I always go by when deciding on whether or not an item has resale potential is to *look for value*. If you see something that looks unusual, or unique, or even if it is commodity that looks like it's worth something, and the price is significantly less than you would pay for it on ebay, then it has a percieved value. Profit = Real Value - Percieved Value. Your eyes will get better at spotting value as you spend more time on task (how's that for some teacher talk C. Ann!!! ). Just stay within your "test market budget" so you don't get stuck with too much yard sale stuff yourself.

C. Ann - I was laid off last year and out of work for 3 months after 20 years in the business. There's no other way to put it but it s$%*&. My thoughts are with you. Just one note of encouragement. Someone close to me who I have mentioned in this forum before was in a similar situation for over a year. His income was on the high side of the middle income bracket or the low side of the high middle income bracket, depending if it is a Democrat or Republican making the call . He was able to live very comfortably during this period by reselling on ebay. At the time, he had significantly more ebay experience than you, but when motivated, anyone can learn fast!!!

I hope that everything works out for the best.

 

[nelle]

When you print labels at home do you print the label with the postage or without? How do you pay for the postage and what if you get the wrong wieght? This whole poatage thing is confusing but then it doesn't take much to confuse me .
I have one item listed right now and boxes of stuff to list waiting. So I'll be busy for awhile.
C Ann I hope everything works out ok with your job good luck!

 

[shovelhd]

I have two scales. One is a 50# spring postal scale. It's probably accurate to 1/4#. That's close enough for anything that needs to be shipped by the pound. It cost around $25 but I wound up paying $5 for it after a combo deal.

I also have a 5# electronic letter scale that is accurate to 1/10#. I got this free when I signed up for the Power Plan at stamps.com. If you sign up for a 30 day free trial they send you the scale to keep. I chose to stay on for another month in order to get $25 of free postage and a free $25 Circuit City gift card. I cancelled the month after.

The Power Plan is I believe $17.95/mo just for the plan. You pay for USPS postage at USPS rates. Delivery Confirmation ("tracking number") is free for Priority and Express Mail, and $0.13 for Parcel Post and Media Mail. The software lets you print out barcoded labels onto plain paper or sticky labels, your choice. How these prepaid packages are handled at your Post Office depends on the Postmaster. Most will not allow you to drop the package off unattended because of postal regulations post 9/11. Many will let you skip the line and drop off at the counter. They glance at the label, see that it's prepaid (I just say "I have a prepaid package" when I put it on the counter), acknowledge this, and leave. Quick and painless. Some Postmasters are sticks in the mud and make you wait in line. That's the whole point of prepaid postage, to avoid lines like all of the bulk mailers do. YMMV.

I really miss this service right now, but I can't justify the cost. I am looking into re-upping to a lower cost plan. For home based businesses I haven't yet found anything that beats it for USPS shipping.

Comments, suggestions?

 

[barbnbrian]

Well, I seem to be doing pretty good with what I have listed. Just listed some more Disney clothes and books, relisted some items that didn't sell the first time around (lowered the price a little) and for some strange reason, they seem to get bids when I relist them. (ebay id barnbrianct). Still not making as much money as I would like. Also, I have to stop looking at other auctions that are about to close because then I put in a bid at the end and usually win. Instead of making money, I end up spending it!

Keep the tips coming! I love this thread!

Barbnbrianct

 

[C.Ann]

My gosh!! I just noticed that this thread has been looked at an astonishing 13,039 times!!!!

Yet only 264 posts or so have appeared here, so I'm thinking that means there are a whole lot of "lurkers" out there.. Don't be afraid to pop in and join the class.. If I can't help you personally, there are others here that may have answers that I don't have...

Now - I went to work today and my supervisor was out sick.. (Phew!!) Looks like she's gong to be out tomorrow as well - and then I'm not scheduled to work again until next Tuesday - so I'm assuming a still have a "real" job until at least the beginning of next week - LOL.. In preparation of the possible "ax falling", I hope to get a whole bunch of stuff listed on Friday and Saturday.. I've been listing one or two auctions before I go to work in the morning and then another one or two in the evening, so right now I think I have 17 items up for sale.. I also want to do some serious searching in the house within the next few days as I have one entire bedroom that is filled (and I do mean FILLED) with boxes upon boxes of stuff that I was saving for a garage sale.. There's brand new stuff in there - old stuff - books - videos - and all kinds of goodies - so if I can get a bunch of it up for auction I'll feel a lot better about facing the possible outcome of next week..

Enough of that though.. How is my class doing? Hardly anyone has been stopping by to "hand in their assignments" so I sure hope you guys aren't goofing off!! LOL

Let's hear some success stories here!! Gotta keep the enthusiasm going!!!!!!!!

 

[dturner]

WEEKLY REPORT:

Ok, my second week of Ebaying and I've sold everything except two items that I had up (had around 30) have 11 currently closing this weekend and I've made more money than I thought possibe. It's so exciting to see your auctions go up in the last minutes, pretty addicting,!

 

[SJ1252]

CAnn-

Thanks again for this great thread! I really hope everything works out for you with your "real job" as well as your EBAY job!

I have a question for anyone who's willing...

It says on the USPS site that electronic (I think that's the way they put it) Delivery confirmation only costs $.13 as opposed to the $.55 it costs at the post office. But when I try to do it - I can only get Priority or Express. Someone (sorry, can't remember) a few posts ago mentioned this and something about a monthly fee. Is this the only way to do it? Am I missing something?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Sharon

 

[DMRick]

DC is actually free on Priority packages. If you want it on first class packages, you have to download (no charge and easy to use) the PO shipping assistant. Then you can do your first class labels and opt for DC. You'll pay at the postoffice when they scan it. Your first class envy has to be 3/4 of an inch thick (I toss in a couple of packing peanuts to thicken it up), so you will pay the surcharge for mail over 1/4" if it's under an ounce. Hope that made sense..it's past my bedtime LOL!
Doris

 

[ByJiminy]

I've only had one auction close, and I have a few more things listed but with no bids yet. I didn't list a whole lot to start as I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with how to do things before I overwhelmed myself, LOL. But I'm feeling good about it, and will probably get organized to do some more listing. That brings me to some questions!

It seems as though things often don't get bids until the last day or so, and last hours. So is there a reason to have auctions longer than 5 days? I've heard that Sunday is a good day to have them end, and that makes sense to me to some extent since I'm sure some people don't have much time during the week to look and bid. Also, is there a good *time* to have auctions end? Does it matter much if it's morning or afternoon? I tend to have a bit of spare time in the early morning, but wonder if that might prohibit folks from sitting around until the last minute waiting to bid??

Thanks again to everyone for their help and encouragement. The one auction I did have close, the buyer wanted to use PayPal, but since I didn't have it set up to accept credit cards it didn't automatically come up as an option for her, and she didn't know what to do.....now, I wouldn't have known either, LOL, but that was just covered in class here, so I DID know just what to do.

Laura B.

 

[shovelhd]

When to end your auctions is always a topic of debate. My take on it is whenever the chancest are highest that your target audience will be able to manually snipe the auction for the highest price. Sniping is bidding at the last possible moment with a bid just high enough to win, thus securing the goods at the lowest potential price. Many people use robo bidding software or web sniping services that will snipe without them being present at their computer. To these folks it doesn't matter when you end your auction. To the ones who snipe manually, it does.

I sell to a mix of commercial customers and consumers. The commercial people work 9-5 M-F so I make sure that these auctions end during those times. For all others I usually set them up for Sunday night but have done well Tuesday-Thursday evenings during the week.

So the generic answer is whenever you think the probability is highest of your target audience being online and looking at the end of your auction.

 

[barbnbrian]

CAnn - I see you leave for your trip in 8 DAYS!!!

So, how much money have you made selling on Ebay for your trip. Give us some more encouragement!

I just sold a total of $40 in auctions that ended the last few days. It's not a lot, but every little bit helps!

Keep it coming!

BarbnBrianCT

 

[C.Ann]

Auction endings.. Now THERE'S an interesting topic.. When I listed my very first item on eBay I was SOOOOO excited that I forgot all about the time difference between the east coast and the west coast and my item ended at 3 o'clock in the morning out on the west coast!!! Although I'm sure there weren't many folks ebaying during the wee hours of the morning, I still ended up selling the item for a good price but that was sheer luck!!

I have since refrained from having my auctions end in the middle of the night, but have been experimenting with all different times and days.. Can't say I've noticed that one way is better than another because it seems that the trend now is for the buyers to just wait until the last day - or hours - to place any bids at all..

I think the reasoning behind having an auction run for at least 5 days though is to get as much exposure to your item as you can (lots of potential buyers will put your item on their "watch" list).. I've run a few 5-day as opposed to 7-day auctions and haven't seen much of a difference in the outcome there either - BUT it costs the same to run it either way so if you're not too anxious to have your auctions over with (or you don't have to shorten them because you're going out of town or something), why not get the most out of your insertion fee??

Gotta get ready for my "real" job now.. Will check back in to see how my class is doing later this evening!!

 

[C.Ann]

Originally posted by barbnbrian
CAnn - I see you leave for your trip in 8 DAYS!!!

BarbnBrianCT

--------------------

ME??????? I'm not leaving for a trip.. Did someone else stick their count-down under my name?? I have all that stuff turned off, so I can't see sigs, count-down clocks, etc..

 

[barbnbrian]

Sorry CAnn, you're right. Shovelhd is leaving in 8 days. This post has so many threads that I thought the clock was under your post. I bet you wish you were leaving in 8 days!

 

[mom2bandp]

Okay, time for me to stop lurking and start asking!

I've been buying on eBay for a long time, but because of this thread I've just started getting up the nerve to start selling. The only thing is, I didn't have a digital camera. So I bought one off of eBay, only to find it won't get clear definition of the item's details. The seller has had a lot of complaints about this camera, and is giving me a full refund. So I need advice on a good, inexpensive camera just for the purpose of taking pictures for my auctions (mainly infant's clothing for now). Will the Jam Cam that C.Ann said she got work for this? Any suggestions?

BTW, this thread has been wonderful! Thanks to C.Ann and everyone else! Ebaying our way to Disney is a great idea!

 

[erinch]

well--
I dived in because of all of your encouragement.
Have sold 18 items (for the grand total of $120
plus have another set of stuff with several days to go currently at about $80. (ebay id erinch)

I had a bunch of stuff listed -- a lot of adult party games like scrutineyes--none of which sold--during that gallery sale. Many now have bids with several days to go.

These are the things I've learned:
1) How to take paypal (15 out of 18 paid that way); signed up for paypal debit, now get 1.5% back on outgoing transactions, so pay for postage etc through that account.

2) How to print priority labels from my computer. I have just a spring scale and overstimated postage by $1.50 on one package. I asked our friendly small town postmaster what to do about that, and he said "Nothing." Have decided I need a digital scale for 2 pounds and under as spring scale is not at all accurate.

3) How to use TURBOLISTER. My all time best hint. It saves your settings, automatically applies a theme, and makes listing so much easier. If your upload doesn't work, you don't lose your work if your computer freezes. Although it can cause you to have a pile of auctions ending at the same time, that's not necessary, as long as you space out putting them in your upload folder. (Admittedly much easier with a broadband connection.)

4) How to use frontpage to format a lengthy listing, and paste frontpage's html into the turbolister window (can supply details if any html wizards out there. Basically you need to cut after the head tags to get it to work.) This lets you use your own website for photohosting (and you pay no fee) and lets you format how you wish--can still be applied within a theme.
Example: (long download if modem connection) of a bunch of DS's clothes I listed:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3415655025&category=15646&rd=1

5) Discovered ebay's support answers emails within hours--with a live person! Then sends you a survey to answer if it helped (wanted to know if there were any fees if using own photo hosting).

6) Have not figured out a good source for shipping cartons if item too big for priority mail, of if sending media mail.

7) WE ARE A NATION WHICH DOESN'T READ ENOUGH! HAVE LOTS OF MYSTERIES, THRILLERS, STAR TREK AND SCI FI UP WHICH ARE GOING NOWHERE! WHAT HAPPENED TO READING AS THE ESSENCE OF LIFE????

8. Thanks again to all!

9) And--I can sell you star trek: really, really cheap

 

[mom2smjn]

I am so enjoying this thread!
I have several thing sold this week and I am thrilled....My major thing is I don't seem to get more than 1 bid on anything!!! So now I am scared to set the price at a lower start because I always sell to bidder number one! Am I starting with too high of prices maybe?



I am stumped!!!
I wait for the day that one of my auctions has more than 1 bidder...how exciting that must be!

Anyway I am pleased to have a few things sold and I am adding more each day! Goodbye clutter hello MICKEY!!

(ebay id momswarehouse)

Thanks for all of the great tips and info!!!

 

[shovelhd]

We are leaving for our 1st WDW trip in 8 days. I learned most of what I needed to know about Disney here. I hope that the people on this thread learned something about ebay from me in return.

I picked up more merch for ebay yesterday, and will be posting when we get back. Good luck everyone!!!!!

 

[C.Ann]

Okay - the teacher has a question for the more seasoned ebay veterans here..

Long story short, after filing an NPB, the NPB in question has finally responded to me and now wants to pay for the item with a CC.. That's no problem as I recently upgraded to the Premier acct. - BUT - the shipping address is a military one - an APO - and I'm wondering if that is considered a "confirmed" address with Paypal and if it will cause any problems for me..

Also - does it cost anything additional to ship to an APO address - can I still use the media mail rate - and can I still get delivery confirmation??
------------------------

How's everyone else doing today? Racking up that Disney money???????