eBay Tips & More
Find Out About New Inventory BEFORE It Goes Up on eBay
My friend, S.D., got a like-new pair of TOMS wrap boots for just $45.
M.M. got a new with tags limited-edition Uniqlo T-shirt for $10.
M.F. bought a silk Banana Republic blouse and a J. Jill skirt, both for less than $25.
...All without setting foot in a store, logging onto the Internet or paying any shipping charges. All just from knowing me!
When I list and sell inventory on eBay, I automatically end up paying a percentage of my earnings to eBay and Paypal. While eBay is a great marketplace with lots of traffic and has brought me hundreds of sales, you can see why I would prefer to sell my items here INSTEAD of listing them on eBay.
Want to find out how to score nice deals like my friends did? Subscribe to this blog using the links in the lefthand column and you will see posts about my latest finds and have an opportunity to buy them before I open them up to my eBay buyers.
Here's a quick preview of some of the items soon to be listed...
Frye suede Campus boots, Women's 9
Brighton black wallet on a strap
Eileen Fisher red wool cardigan, Small
Dansko Professional clogs in Cordovan Leather, 43
Eddie Bauer men's black down vest, Large
Neiman Marcus ivory men's cashmere pullover, 42
Interested in any of these items? Contact me at michelle @ simplyfetchingfinds . com.
Going With Your Gut...and Your Phone
In my last post, I said it's best not to go with your gut...but it's a good place to start. Unusual titles, high-quality bindings, antique editions—these things are bound to catch your eye.
And that's when you pull out your cell phone. I won't go into all the different programs/apps/tools available to use on your phone as it seems like they are changing all the time. Get opinions on selling tools at Amazon's forum for Third-Party Software & Services. Before I got my iPhone, I relied on ASellerTool's simple and inexpensive ISBN lookup tool. The text-only format is ideal for non-smartphone users and their subscription service is only $6/month, which will quickly be paid when you score a copy of Atlas of Killifishes of the Old World, a book I bought for $2 and sold for close to $80 a few years ago.
We've never made that major score, but other nice finds have included:
1) Winnie the Pooh, A Reproduction of the Original Manuscript
2) An 1880s edition of Memoirs of Robert E. Lee
3) Space is the Machine (when we sold that one, no others were listed and our copy sold in a matter of minutes to a buyer who was waiting)
4) Get a Grip on Physics (though the prices are nothing spectacular now, shortly after the Tiger Woods scandal broke, this out of print volume was selling pretty high)
With the exception of No. 4, all of these books were purchased for $2 or less at a local thrift store. (The fourth my husband received for the cost of postage in a book swap.) I wonder what book treasures are waiting for you?
And that's when you pull out your cell phone. I won't go into all the different programs/apps/tools available to use on your phone as it seems like they are changing all the time. Get opinions on selling tools at Amazon's forum for Third-Party Software & Services. Before I got my iPhone, I relied on ASellerTool's simple and inexpensive ISBN lookup tool. The text-only format is ideal for non-smartphone users and their subscription service is only $6/month, which will quickly be paid when you score a copy of Atlas of Killifishes of the Old World, a book I bought for $2 and sold for close to $80 a few years ago.
We've never made that major score, but other nice finds have included:
1) Winnie the Pooh, A Reproduction of the Original Manuscript
2) An 1880s edition of Memoirs of Robert E. Lee
3) Space is the Machine (when we sold that one, no others were listed and our copy sold in a matter of minutes to a buyer who was waiting)
4) Get a Grip on Physics (though the prices are nothing spectacular now, shortly after the Tiger Woods scandal broke, this out of print volume was selling pretty high)
With the exception of No. 4, all of these books were purchased for $2 or less at a local thrift store. (The fourth my husband received for the cost of postage in a book swap.) I wonder what book treasures are waiting for you?
How Our Online Business Began
I've been selling on eBay and Amazon since 2007 and hope to share some lessons I've learned along the way. The whole experiment began as a way for my husband to reduce his collection of 1,200 CDs. Listing media on Amazon is dead simple—type in an ISBN, click the "Sell Yours Here" button and follow the prompts.
Over just a few months, we sold and shipped dozens (maybe hundreds) of his CDs. Some sold for surprisingly high prices, including a UK remix of classic '80s song "Safety Dance" and Vols. 3 & 4 of Desert Sessions, a project of Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.
The money was rolling in from selling these CDs that we already owned when we realized we were running out of things to sell! The next time we were at a thrift store, we flipped through the bookshelves, looking for things we thought might sell. I don't recommend just buying anything that "looks good" (as we started off doing) because too many books, especially best-sellers, sell for less than a dollar on Amazon. There are several excellent ISBN-lookup tools to help you choose appropriate books when you're out shopping.
Still, unless you have a fancy bar-code scanner and can process a whole bookstore quickly, your gut reaction is a big part of choosing which books to look up. As I said in the last paragraph, avoid fiction best-sellers and Oprah book club picks unless they are recently released (in the past few months) or you can get them very cheaply.
In my next post, I'll tell you about some of the best books we've found while thrifting.
Over just a few months, we sold and shipped dozens (maybe hundreds) of his CDs. Some sold for surprisingly high prices, including a UK remix of classic '80s song "Safety Dance" and Vols. 3 & 4 of Desert Sessions, a project of Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme.
The money was rolling in from selling these CDs that we already owned when we realized we were running out of things to sell! The next time we were at a thrift store, we flipped through the bookshelves, looking for things we thought might sell. I don't recommend just buying anything that "looks good" (as we started off doing) because too many books, especially best-sellers, sell for less than a dollar on Amazon. There are several excellent ISBN-lookup tools to help you choose appropriate books when you're out shopping.
Still, unless you have a fancy bar-code scanner and can process a whole bookstore quickly, your gut reaction is a big part of choosing which books to look up. As I said in the last paragraph, avoid fiction best-sellers and Oprah book club picks unless they are recently released (in the past few months) or you can get them very cheaply.
In my next post, I'll tell you about some of the best books we've found while thrifting.
