As I have mentioned a time or two, I am very money conscious and my mind is constantly spinning trying to think of new ways to make and save money to accomplish my family’s debt-free goals. I have been interested in money, savings and budgeting as far back as I can remember. I don’t know if it stems from being poor growing up, or my grandmother constantly teaching me to save money when I was very young, or the fact that I have always had a good example of how to work hard. Regardless, I am borderline fixated on it. Don’t get me wrong, I have spent enough to probably keep a small third-world country in business, but on an overall basis, I am a borderline money-grubber. OK, maybe not quite that bad, but I liked that word, it made me giggle with funny images. Money-grubber.
Back to my point in all of this: eBay. Yep, I use eBay as a part-time gig to fuel my yard sale and thrift store addict habits. Now, I can go yard saling (if it isn’t a word yet, it soon will be) with my husband, mom, dad and friends for a purpose: my eBay store. Not only can I spend quality fun time with them while Christmas shopping at the weekly yard sales and thrift shop stops, but now I can look for gems to sell! Not literal gems, otherwise I wouldn’t be on here talking about how to earn money, but, you know, gems in the rough. I can pick up all kinds of great things to list in my eBay store and earn money. Cha-ching!
It is work, don’t let anyone fool you, but I can do it from my own living room floor. I love it! Also, it has been the easiest way for me to double, triple, quadruple, and do more with my money in the shortest amount of time, yet giving people great deals. Again, it IS work, but where else can you take one dollar and turn it into $5-$10, and sometimes even more for special items? I’m cheap, so I tend to gravitate towards things that require a lesser investment up front, but I am confident they will pan out in the end. Without having to actually pan for gold or anything. That’s, like, physical work. Ick.
So, you want to know what rough gems I am selling on eBay for actual profits? You name it, it probably has been sold on eBay by someone at some point (just check out the “everything else” category and you’ll see what I mean). However, like any store, there are some items that I can count on. Here are some of my bread and butter items, along with other things that have sold decently for me:
-
Name brand clothing to include shirts, pants, shorts, bras, jeans: Levis, Aeropostale, Nike, Adidas, Victoria’s Secret, Ann Taylor, Hollister, Rip Curl, Old Navy and Under Armor, to name a few
-
Sports/Team Memorabilia/Clothing: NFL, College, MLB, NBA, etc.
-
Disney Spoons (OK, a rarity, but older “vintage” spoons with Minnie, Mickey and other characters have done well. Hard to find for sure)
-
Popular movies, books and CDs
-
Dave Ramsey books, CDs and DVDs (funny, I make money from something that has been a huge influence on me in saving money)
-
Video games and consoles
-
Dieting and health books (varies on what fad is popular at the time, but I have had good luck with Weight Watchers.)
-
Vintage (ie 20+ year old) items – Color by Numbers, Clothes, Games (electronic and board)
-
“Extinct” computer items, such as floppy disks (various sizes), VHS tapes, computer games, etc
-
Hats! Ball caps, trucker hats, floppy hats – especially hats that “hipsters” will like (trucker hats do great!)
I have had good luck finding and selling camera gear. A lens I bought at goodwill for $10 sold for over $190. Many years ago I paid for a plane ticket with another lens I paid only $3 for. You have to really know cameras to do well on them though, many are only worth the few dollars you would pay.
I got lucky and found a vitamix blender last year for $10 that turned into $100. I am no blender expert but I knew the vita mix name, and I tested it before buying, so I felt confident it was a score!
I have just started to sell some of my old clothes, I am surprised that people will actually buy them. I dont think I would buy used clothes online but people do. I have a lot of mine I want to sell, so hopefully I can learn what people are looking for and what price I should be buying at and I can venture into the clothing world. They sure are easy to pack and ship with no worries of breakage!
Roleplaying game books and japanese manga books can be good, use the amazon app to scan them. I found 3 roleplaying books recently for $1, 2 have sold for $60 and the most valuable one is still unsold.
The trick is to know enough about what you are buying to be relatively certain you can at least double your money.
Great advice, Wes! I will need to keep an eye out for the game books and manga books, I hadn’t thought about those!
On eBay, the best way to decide the “going rate” to sell items, especially clothing, is through looking at the sold section. Search for your brand and basic info (such as Old Navy men pants) and make sure you click the “sold listings.” It will pull up all of the recently sold listings that match your search, which you can narrow down more if you want to try to find something very similar to what you have to sell. You can use this as a guide to price your item.
As you mentioned, clothing is super easy to sell and what I primarily shop for and list. They are generally very light, so the shipping costs are not ridiculous, unlike the heavier items such as books, games, etc. As far as purchase pricing goes, unless it is something really special, I won’t pay more than $2 per piece of clothing, although I aim for $1 or less (such as at a bag sale). There will always be a dud or two, but it doesn’t hurt so much when you have little invested.
Thanks again for your response and advise, Wes! Let us know if you come across any other great finds!