So You Wanna Sell On Ebay

Jason has been an eBay seller for 10 years. He deals mainly in the used clothing market, but is also looking to expand into shoes and hard goods. He has applied a sourcing strategy that increases his average sale price and a sell-through rate on his eBay store, and he would love to share his experiences and strategies with us today! Interesting Notes Jason had his first eBay store in 2008 but let it go after two years. He started a new one in 2010 and continues to operate until now. He uses an eBay App called Price Spectre. The App enables him to set a pricing rule and release his items every 30 days. The prices continue to drop until it reaches the floor price. He goes sourcing 3 days in a row. He sources his items from thrift stores. His average cost is $5.50. He tries to stay with items that have an average of $30 or better. He also sources in Goodwill bins 20 minutes away from him. A month ago, he picked up a pair of Men's Nocona boots made of an Anteater. He bought it for $2 and sold for $250 within on

Jim is a father to 3 boys and husband to his beautiful wife Ashlee who also helps with the business. He works eBay full time and is most recently known as the Ordinary Seller on YouTube since he is the guy just trying to pay his bills. Interesting Notes Jim used to work at Horizon, a cable wireless corporation. He also worked as a salesman in a company that sold custom printed magnets and pens. But he decided that the two jobs were not for him. He felt he needed to do something on his own. He realized that he knew how to flip, to buy cheap items and sell it for more than what he pays for. It was his father who was a garbage man who introduced him into reselling. He was 12 years old when he started reselling. His father would pick trash and take it home. Once a month they would go to the flea market and sell the trash. And so Jim decided to go for reselling and never looked back. Jim and his wife, Ashlee, sell on eBay and Amazon. Jim manages eBay while Ashlee manages Amazon. Together, they do it full-time fo

Samahria has been selling on eBay since September 2014. She was 6 months pregnant looking to earn some extra cash. Once her baby was born and she had to return back to work, she decided that she could not leave her baby with anyone. She kicked it up a notch and eventually left her full-time job to sell on eBay and Amazon full-time. Interesting Notes Samahria had set a date when to quit her corporate job. She completed her action items but felt terrified to pull the trigger. Her friend helped her walk through the process and she was able to quit. She started off selling on Amazon. She discovered early on that there were a lot of brand restrictions on Amazon. She needed to sell her items. It was then that she found eBay. A seller has to get an approval to sell in a certain category and brand on Amazon. Whereas, a seller can sell anything on eBay. She loves eBay because she has more control over the customers and the process. She still sells on Amazon, but she enjoys selling on eBay. She sources her eBay produ

Nancy and George are a husband and wife team that run a full-time eBay business. They started about 5 years ago, selling mostly plush and collectibles. Over the course of 5 years, they went from 50 active listings to a high of 6500. They currently manage 3000 active listings. Interesting Notes Nancy left her job in March 2016 and they both do eBay full-time. In Summertime, they thrift on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Those are the garage sales days in their area. Sometimes, they go out on Sundays for estate sales. On Winter time, they would source from estate sales and thrift stores. Nancy and George increased their listings from 50 by pure addiction. The first item they bought is a vintage creamer with a stagecoach pattern. They bought it at Goodwill for only $0.49. They sold it for $39.99. They first started selling on Etsy and reached up to 700 items. Then they moved all their Etsy listings into eBay. Nancy used to ask herself, "how many listings I could do at night?" She listed first the most expen

Annette has been selling on eBay since 1998. She comes from a family of collectors and auction goers and discovered eBay as a way to liquidate the many treasures found over the years. After a 34-year career at NASA, she quit in 2016 and now enjoys eBay selling without the interruption of a 9-5 job. Interesting Notes Three years ago, Annette lost her husband who was her shipping helper, to cancer. Though she enjoyed her work in NASA she chose to take an early retirement. Now, she is trying to take care of herself and do eBay full-time. She started selling on eBay in 1998. They liquidated her husband's parents estate through an estate sale. She held some items back and told her husband's family to try to sell it on eBay where they could get a higher price. She was technically savvy and so she explored eBay. She sold a morning ring for $225 and got hooked. eBay has also become a great hobby and a connection with his father. They would talk about what is selling on eBay. Then her father would go down the baseme

Glen Zubia, Jr is an eBay seller from El Paso, Texas and best known for his YouTube Channel, Hustler Hacks. He hopes to inspire others who are struggling with money (especially after college) to take advantage of the many money making opportunities that are available through e-Commerce. Interesting Notes Glen was 13 years old when his cousin introduced him to eBay as a place where he could buy the big sports cards. In his college days, he and his girlfriend (now his wife), used to sell McFarlane sports figures. The figures revolved around the NFL and NBA players. They custom painted the figures into a new player like the rookies. They sold for $160 the first player that they repainted. He did the custom figures for a while. Then school got caught up with him. In 2001, he started selling again. He started off thrifting and garage sales to pay off his student loan. Every week, he went to a 5 AM garage sale in their area. He had fun doing it. One time, he and his friends bought boxes of ladies hats of the NBA

Jerry has been selling on eBay since Dec. 14, 2014, with his wife, and he is making it his full-time job. Interesting Notes Jerry is a Salesman by trade. He worked with Keebler cookie company selling cookies for 12 years. Then he and his wife went into the network marketing industry. They did it very well for over 12 years. It brought them to Hawaii for a couple of times for free. Several times, they speak for the company they were with, in an audience of 1,000 to 2,000. Then they started their own company with a partner. But it did not work well. From there, Jerry started looking for a job. No one hired him because he was overqualified. One day, he saw a TV Show that talked about eBay and thought to himself that he could do it. Then a friend asked Jerry's wife to sell a Gucci bag for her. His wife did and sold it for $700. He saw a great opportunity there and got into doing eBay. At first, he started off a little slow. He made some mistakes, but it did not stop him. He learned from his mistakes and keeps m

Jacob and Jason are brothers living in different cities. They have a shared social media presence but have separate businesses and eBay Stores. They have both completed an antique appraisal course, but sell anything they can find on eBay, whether old or new. Interesting Notes Jason lost his job in 2011. He was on the job posting board every day waiting for the next job post. It drove him crazy. He needed to do something. He had been watching Storage Wars, American Pickers, and Antiques Road Show. He had been going to the yard sales since he was in college. So, he went to his first auction and bought a few things. He sold within 24 hours the first thing he posted on eBay. It amazed him. He told his wife that they've got something that might be able to help with their bills until he can find a job. It took Jason eight months to find the job. But all the buying and selling on eBay has sustained them. Jason then got Jacob involved. Jacob went with Jason in an auction in Tennessee to get the feel for it. When he

Crystal has been selling on eBay for nearly 20 years. She started as a hobbyist and quit her job in retail management a few years ago. She now sells full time from her warehouse in Southern California. Interesting Notes Crystal was a young, stay at home mom. She found it hard to be a stay at home mom and not working because she worked since she was a teenager. And so, she needed to find something to do. She found out that fast food toys, like the McDonald's toys, are being sold on eBay. It amazed her that the set of toys would sell for $25 to $30. She had tons of them because she has three kids. One time, at a garage sale, she saw boxes of those fast food toys. She bought the whole box for $5, went home and sorted the toys into groups like Barbie sets, Matchbox sets, etc.... She made a $100 a week selling McDonald's toys alone. That started her eBay love story. She has tried selling vintage things - books, glass, Pyrex because she loves vintage stuff. One day, her friend shared with her how easy it is to se

Debbie has been selling on eBay since 2002. Her grandparents took her to garage sales and thrift stores to buy items to resell in their continuous garage sale in the 1960s when she was young. She loves the freedom of being a small business owner and the friends she has met in the eBay community. Interesting Notes When she was young, Debbie enjoyed her trips to garage sales and thrift stores with her grandparents. They would buy stuff, bring it home, clean it up, and then resell it. There was a time when she was given a quarter and she tried to find a little perfume bottle. Through the years, she has seen a lot changes in selling on eBay. A lot of things that are automated today were manual then. The first thing she sold on eBay does not have pictures. Now, pictures are being uploaded. Selling on eBay now is so much easier. Debbie used to work in the retail. When she started to have kids, she stopped working, stayed at home and with their kids. She was a homeschool mom. One time at a thrift store, she needed

Joe and Linda live in Vancouver, Washington. They each have an eBay store. Joe grew up in Brooklyn and Linda in Santa Rosa, California. Linda started selling about 15 years ago and Joe joined her 4 years ago. They enjoy working together. Interesting Notes Linda started selling on eBay with things that her kids have outgrown and went from there. Her eBay store is Pollyannagrammy. It is coined after her favorite movie Pollyanna and of what she calls herself - Grammy. Her little granddaughter loves to call her "my", short for Grammy. Joe, her husband, has his own store, Joe's Gift and Gourmet. He initially thought of selling food items, but he never got to do it. Most of his items are jeans. Joe and Linda use their house as storage of their eBay stuff. They source their stuff from garage sales, thrift stores, and any place where they can pick up stuff. Joe used to hate sourcing. But when he realized that he could sell stuff for more money, he got hooked. The couple loves to buy stuff from thrift stores. Doing

Paul has sold on eBay since 2001. He specializes in parting out items to resell. He also offers training classes in classrooms, and online training classes using Skype and other means. Interesting Notes Paul used to do small engine repairs for a couple of years. Experience taught him what parts would sell and what would not sell. Now, he focuses more on parting out items and sold the parts on eBay. His niche is small engine parts. But he can part out anything he can find that would bring in some money. He has a two-car garage full of stuff. He does eBay full-time. Paul has so much inventory. This 2018, he started to straighten out his inventory. He made shelves in his garage and used banana boxes he got from a grocery store years ago. He organized his parts alphabetically and by item numbers. In parting out an item, Paul has to look up on eBay and see what parts are sold and what parts are for sale. He sets his phone and timed himself. He would look how far he has gone in half an hour. He does not want to s

Steve and Priscilla have been operating an eBay store since 2016. They sell antiques and collectibles. It began in their home and has now expanded to include 2 buildings and 3 employees. They have been doing eBay since the mid-1990's as a hobby. In 2016, they went into it on a larger level. It all started with a marble and a garage sale. Interesting Notes In the early days, Steve and Priscilla take their kids to the pawn shops. They would ask the pawn shop what kind of video games are hot. Then they would buy the cartridges of those video games and sell it on eBay. They used the pawn shops as their research and development and moved from there. Priscilla works full-time and is home-based. Steve has a computer consulting business. There was a time when Priscilla was out of work for three months. She was recovering from a surgery and was trying to find ways to be active. So, they started to go to a garage sale and auction. They started to buy several things and started to list it on eBay. Steve bought a huge

Charlie has been collecting comics for over 40 years. In order to finance his habit, he bought comics in bulk and sold them individually. The rest they say is history. Interesting Notes Charlie has been collecting comic books with his friends since he was five or six years old. They would buy different titles because they don't have enough money. They would read their own titles and then swap with each other. When he left home, he decided to bring his own collection. He considers himself as a Marvel Zombie --- someone who used to buy every single comic title back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. In fact, he has 10,000 comics in stock, for sale, and about 25,000 comics in his collection. Only 5% of the comics he has, has he read. He grew up with the stuff in the 60's and 70's. That is the stuff that he read. The rest becomes a part of his collection. Over the period of years, Charlie has established relationships with various sellers. He sources his comics from his trips to local stores that give bigger bargains

Laura is a stay at home mom of 2 kids ages 5 and 1. She used to work in the banking industry and left her job when she had her youngest. She has been doing eBay for 7 years but full-time for only a year-and-a-half. Interesting Notes Laura had a complication during her pregnancy with her youngest. The complication rendered her incapable of corporate work for six months. So, she then sells on eBay. She builds up her eBay business before she fully left her corporate job. She started selling things from around their house. Then she went to thrifting for fun and started with a couple of things. She saw that she made more money from it and got hooked. Now, she sources most of her items from thrift stores. Whenever her daughter goes with her, her daughter finds more stuff in the thrift stores than she can. Laura does not like clutter. When she shops, she does not go to the thrift stores that are cluttered. On her eBay store, she tries to keep everything organized as possible. She makes sure that her customers are

Peggy, AKA Fleahopper, loves to travel, loves to flea and loves to sell on eBay to fund her passion. When her daughter moved to Germany, Peggy used that event to springboard a lifestyle of international travel picking. Fleahopper invites you to join in on the fun. Interesting Notes Peggy has been in the medical field for her entire corporate career. She is a senior quality program consultant in a Healthcare IT world. She enjoys no less than three two-week vacations in a year. Her passion and lifestyle is Fleahopping and calls herself a Fleahopper. A Fleahopper is someone who hops across the world to go to the flea markets. Peggy is a self-confessed flea market addict. She gets to live more her passion in a unique way when her daughter moved to Germany 17 years ago. Her only daughter, Heidi, is a teacher in the U.S. During the cultural exchange, Heidi met a German. The guy works for a Bavarian government. The two got married and decided to move to Germany. It saddened Peggy that she will never see her daugh

Lynn is a full-time eBay seller, mom to 5 furbabies, and co-admin to Facebook group Thrifty Adventures. She has been selling full-time on eBay since 2002. She sells everything and anything that can be flipped for a profit. Interesting Notes Lynn is a single mom to three dogs and two cats --- the five kids which she needs to feed. They are her excuse when she throws a low-ball offer and best offer. Her eBay store is Dazy's Treasures. Dazy was the name of her dog at the time she started on eBay. She started on eBay selling home-made dog biscuits. Today, she sells everything and anything. She is a thrifter. She goes to auction, garage sales, and buys online. She also does a little bit of retail arbitrage, that is, she goes to local retail stores, buys the stuff, and put it on eBay. The length of time she spends on thrifting depends upon which store she is. Most of the thrift stores have different departments. Lynn would go by departments. Right now, she has a death pile in her garage. She became an expert on w

Theresa was an Exclusive Guest Panelist speaking with eBay's Bob Kupbens on the main stage at eBay Open in July 2017. Theresa has over 20 years experience selling on eBay and helping others. Interesting Notes Theresa had wished to be on a panel to talk to eBay sellers and help them however she could. Then one day, she received an email invitation to be one. She has been promoting eBay's Promoted Listings since June 2016. She is a user of the product and she loves it! In Nov 2016, eBay came to her house to shoot a video of Theresa for their Promoted Listings campaign. She has 3700 listings in her store. Every single one of them is on a promoted listings campaign. Promoted Listings is a way to market your listings through eBay. Theresa likes Promoted Listings because there is no risk. You only pay for it if the item sells because it was promoted. It is available even for single-quantity listings. Because you only pay for it if it sells, someone has to click on the promoted listings link and then buy it. Promo

Gregg Wilson is the owner, operator & chief trader @ Raddad's Tradin Post, an online store of general mercantile supplied from closeouts, liquidations, bulk buys, salvage & surplus. The store has a niche focus on Health & Beauty and Health Fitness as well as other products. Raddad's sells wholesale and retail, worldwide. Interesting Notes Gregg used to work in a post office as a mail carrier. He had a customer that does eBay and he became curious. It took him a couple of years before he started to ask the customer serious questions. The guy told him to save money. When Gregg had the money, he went to the guy and they got some merchandise. The guy told him to take some pictures and put it on eBay. He started selling on eBay on Feb 22, 2016. On April 2016, he upgraded to a Premium store. He does eBay full-time and spends 20 to 21 hours a day working on it. He noticed that a lot of people got into eBay without making an investment. People fail to know that when you start earning from eBay, it is a

Michelle has been an eBay seller since 1999 selling mostly vintage clothing, designer fashion and resale clothes. She became a full-time seller after her son was diagnosed with autism. This allowed her to care for her son and help earn an income for the household. Interesting Notes Michelle's mother took her to thrift stores her whole life. That has created her passion. But she went to school to learn and educate herself about antiques and vintage. She was in her clinical as part of her nursing degree when her son was diagnosed with Autism. Her whole life had changed then. Her neighbor referred her to the eBay website telling her that it is fun. She tried to see what eBay has to offer her. In the first week, she killed it and wanted more. She started with vintage clothing from the early 1800s to 1950s fashion. Vintage clothing has high dollar demands on eBay 20 years ago. Her first major source is her own closet. She did modeling and acting when she was 12 years old. She was a union actress and she had a lo