So You Wanna Sell On Ebay

Dave Snyder is an advanced eBay SEO consultant and creator of the Listing SEO Score (SM). He has been providing hands-on optimization services and leading eBay marketing strategies to select sellers since 2013 at ListingSeoScore.com. Dave and his wife, Heather, have been selling on eBay at TheEcoBunny.com since 2009. Prior to selling on eBay, Dave was a commercial, industrial, and residential property tax consultant for a firm in the Chicago Loop. Combining his love for eBay and natural bent towards analysis, Dave has become the eBay SEO expert of choice to sellers large and small. Interesting Notes After college, Dave got himself a job as a commercial tech analyst. He got the job because of the reputation of the school he got from. He also did a job as property tax consultant but found it boring. His wife nudged him to look at working for himself because that is what he wants to do. So they began selling on eBay. They started selling with his wife's handmade things. But, they realized that it would take fo

You could say Schad VanLeeuwen was born with motorcycling in his blood. His grandfather had been a national racing champion, and Schad grew up lending a hand in the family parts and accessories business. To help sell some of their old inventory, Schad began listing it on eBay. Soon, he started running his own company, Speed Addicts, out of his freshman dorm room in Santa Barbara, CA. Today, Speed Addicts boasts multiple offices, retail space in Los Angeles, and $2.4 million in annual gross revenue on eBay (more than a third of which is global sales!) Schad also racked up a 99.7% positive rating from more than 33,000 buyers in his eBay Store and prides himself on providing best-in-class service to customers across the globe. Interesting Notes Schad started biking at the age of 4. He grew up biking and was always interested in motorcycles. His family is in wholesale. Schad heard of the family rules to get rid of discontinued inventory. They wanted to get rid of the old exhaust system. It came into his mind to

Kris is an avid quilter who turned her hobby into an eBay quilt store. She began selling fabric & patterns on eBay to generate extra income while Click Creative, her graphic design & online media marketing company, got off the ground. Fast-forward 3 years & that eBay "side-gig" has become her MAIN gig... the Click Creative Boutique. Interesting Notes Kris just discovered she had a skill for a graphic designer. She took her first paid job in 1997. In 1997, her parents gave her their old Mac. She herself made her wedding invitations using the Mac. She used Adobe Photoshop when it first came out. Ever since she has been using professional software for graphic designs. She started quilting in 2003 after her first child left home. She did it to keep herself busy. Eventually, Kris discovered she had a real passion for it. From graphic design to quilt layouts or presentations to clients, everything she does fits together. She uses Adobe Photoshop or Adobe InDesign to do her crafts. Kris does her work m

Chad & Kimberly Pagel are treasure hunters who have been reselling for over 20 years. They are all about the hustle and have sold on eBay since the late 1990's. Their adventures have taken them all over and they share their knowledge and experiences on their YouTube channel Golden Finger Picker and are co-founders of the Facebook Group The Reseller Society with over 19,000 members. They are motivated by the treasure hunt as well as the networking with like minded people. Interesting Notes The couple originally comes from Indiana. Two years ago, they retired and went to Florida. They are well known in Indiana as one who gives auctions. They have business cards and pass it out to people. They have built a good reputation. People were calling them to sell their stuff. Kimberly has been picking and reselling longer than Chad had. She is now working on her master's degree. Every chance she gets, Kimberly and Chad do things together. A few months ago, the couple decided to bring their strategy to Florida. The

Rich and his wife Nila have been selling on eBay since 2001. They have owned a commercial sign business for 20 years. They realized many years ago the power of e-commerce and with help from their sons began to pursue this new world. They currently have 2 e-commerce websites and sell on both eBay and Amazon. After many years of selling online, they now teach others to sell on eBay. They have had a Meetup group in Chicago since 2006 for anyone interested in selling on eBay, Amazon, & their own website, etc. They're Meetup group has approx 1200 members. Rich began the ecomChicago Conference which has been held in Chicago area for the last 3 years. This event will be held this year, 2016 on October 21-22. This conference is for sellers of all levels and all platforms. Interesting Notes The couple maintains three websites. One is for their eBay and Amazon business which is Appealing Signs. Then another for their yearly eBay conference which is ecomChicago. The third is for their education training for eBay w

Cynthia and Lars have been selling on eBay since the early days when you had to host your photos elsewhere! They sell what they love, pop culture collectibles, TV and movie memorabilia and all kinds of vintage memories from T-shirts to souvenirs and photos. Interesting Notes Cynthia is a writer who covered, then the TV collectibles for Toy Shop Magazine. Now, she still writes and is also a social media manager. eBay is a part-time business to her. Meanwhile, her husband Lars has retired. He is a big fan of old media (VHS, Beta, Cassettes, 8 Tracks). eBay became his full-time business. The couple does well on eBay, but they don't make it a full time living yet. Cynthia and Lars's hobby is thrifting. They are big collectors of TV memorabilia like Lost in Space. If they did not sell on eBay, they have a hoarding problem. Like most of the eBay sellers, they started selling their own stuff. Those were the days when they have to wait for people to mail their cheques. A couple of years ago, the couple started to

Anne Zarraonandia is a long time eBayer beginning in July 1998. She sells just about anything you can put into a box and loves "moving stuff around the universe" and getting cash for it! A former teaching tennis pro she still sells tons of used, dead tennis balls to dog owners around the country! Interesting Notes Anne started selling long before eBay has started. She started with mail order catalog called I Love Barbara Catalog. It is a Barbara Streisand's memorabilia --- records, posters, and books. She sold it to people and fans all over the world. Back then, they used a snail mail form to send the items. Later, she sold memorabilia of Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and anybody moviestar-wise. Aside from memorabilia, she also sells games, books and baseball stuff. Recently she sold a Mohammad Ali autograph to a collector. Anne describes eBay as a collectible marketplace. Everybody collects something. If they want to get rid of their stuff, those that sell collectible things got someth

  Bret and his wife Tammy started an eBay business in 1999 to pay medical bills that had accumulated as a result of medical procedures incurred from fertility treatments and the birth of their daughter. They were able to stay home with their daughter and pay off all their medical bills. They sold the business in 2001, and sold personally on eBay for the next several years. A few years ago, in order to teach their daughter Emily a marketable skill, they started another Ebay business. Their eBay store is TENNESSEE IS OUR NECK OF THE WOODS. Interesting Notes In the 90's, Bret and Tammy went to fertility treatments. They are married for 14 years, yet they were unable to have children. Now, they are blessed with a beautiful daughter whom they named Emily. The couple started selling an Aftermarket Ink Cartridges on eBay. It became phenomenal. The growth is unbelievable. However, they sold the business because Bret will become a full-time Pastor. They sold it to the people in the post office where they did all t

Philip is the founder of localARC, who are purveyors of airline memorabilia and vintage collectibles. An eBay member since 2002, localARC has found success in the niche market of airline memorabilia through offering unique inventory coupled with excellent customer service. Interesting Notes Philip works for Southwest Airlines headquarters. He gets to work next to airplanes every day and see them take off all the time. localARC is short for Local Archaeology. Philip started it with a combination of the airline stuff and mid-century industrial furniture. He is just like most of the seller. He first created his account to buy stuff. In college, he sells his textbooks or a couple of DVDs he has watched. It was only 4 or 5 years ago when Philip decided to make the business more active. His serious eBay sale started with rubber ducks. His first customer is the major rubber duck collector in Germany. Over the past 4 years or so, he has sold 200-300 rubber ducks. Since he works for an Airline, that is where his p

Tom Baur and Barbara Sistak operate the online store "License Plate Garage". On eBay, Tom is known as The License Plate Guy and Barb has a store called The License Plate Gal. They are a husband and wife team that has brought together each of their individual strengths to support each other. The business is perfect for them because each fuel their passions. Tom for collecting and Barb for creating. When they met in 1999, Tom had a huge collection of license plates and an authority on old plates. Barb was an artist and creative entrepreneur with long technology experience. They recognized the opportunity before them and that is when they started their online business of vintage items. Interesting Notes Tom started collecting License Plate in 1953. He started first with bicycle plates. He sold it at the flea market and car shows. Over the years, Tom saw that the younger generation no longer comes to flea markets or car shows. Instead, they buy on eBay. The collectors have also started to buy and sell online.

David McConaghy is a Numismatist (coin expert) and owner of New England Coin Exchange. He opened his store 10 years ago with his Son Dylan who opened his own store in February. Prior to the coin business David was a co-founder of Lamina Lighting and NetSilicon which he helped take public on the Nasdaq at the height of dot com mania in 1999. Interesting Notes David has a formal degree in Electrical Engineering. He used eBay in the early days just to buy items. It is his wife who first started selling on eBay. She sold their daughter's clothes for more than what she has paid it for. That got David's attention. Now, David owns 2 brick and mortar stores. He has 4 kids who are all involved in the business. Dylan, his son who opened his own store, is age 20. David's other 2 boys and a daughter work with him in his store. His kids get a certain percentage of the items they sell. They are one of the largest buyers of coins of new england. They run their store six (6) days a week. They see 50-100 customers per day

  Margaret Collier sells on Ebay, Etsy, Amazon FBA and she also makes YouTube videos on her channel Texas Gal Treasures. She started reselling about 3 years ago when she left her teaching job to stay at home with her kids. It started when she went to some garage sales one Saturday morning for some "me" time. She kept finding cool things that she didn't necessarily want, but knew others would. She loves the thrill of the hunt! Interesting Notes Margaret stopped teaching at the time when her oldest kid turned to kindergarten. She wanted to be there for him in school. Her husband saw that Margaret is with her kids the whole day. He suggested to Margaret to spend a "me" time in a garage sale or a coffee shop. One Saturday, Margaret went to a garage sale with $36 in her little coin purse. She bought some stuff then sell it back home. Again, she went back to the garage sale, bought stuff and sell it again. It kept on going. That's how she started selling on eBay. She had nothing in particular in mind to buy. Sh

  Chris is a former "Corporate America" office drone who turned a passion for old T-shirts into a thriving work-from-home business. Interesting Notes Chris used to collect baseball cards when he was a kid. Now, he collects vintage T-shirts. He loves the thrill of going out and find something rare and cool. Chris first experience of selling on eBay is a halloween costume of Mater from Cars. He bought it for $50 and put if for auction. It sold for $73. During his college days, Chris worked in The Buckle, a clothing company. There, he learned the ROYGB system - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Violet, Black, and Blue. Now, he organizes his T-shirts by the ROYGB system. Chris can tell by the tag if the T-shirt is original and vintage. Sometimes, there is a copyright date in tags. He can also tell by the material consistency. Materials on the 80's was a 50-50 Polycotton. He can tell by the way it feels. For sourcing, Chris goes to thrift stores. But, he started thinking of new ways to find his items. He tries to ge

  Matt is hell-bent on leaving the 9 to 5 world. He now works 80 hours a weeks so that he no longer has to work 40. He has cut down to 2 days a week for another employer and is just about ready to quit his job completely. He started selling on eBay in the late 90's but got really serious a few years ago. His number one source for products to sell is the dump. Interesting Notes On the 1st year Matt got serious on eBay, he was running an auction and sold $33,000 worth of stuff. But he paid $32,000 for his taxes. He considered the experience as his 1st year in college. He continued on, though. Matt has been working in the field of mechanical and small engine shops for fifteen (15) years. Experience taught him that almost anything sells. He has seen that people throw away equipment when one part goes wrong. So, he gets those and stripped it down. He gets the good stuff and brings it to people who are looking for those. He specializes in trimmers because he can get truckloads for free than nothing. It is als

Lysa is the owner of Sunburst Nation. She was formerly Sunburst Fashions Boutique. Lysa is a powerseller with over 10,000 100% positive feedback. She sells hand-picked name brand and vintage Womans clothing such as Free People, Anthropologie, Zara, J.Crew and so much more. Interesting Notes Lysa changed her business name from Sunburst Fashions Boutique to Sunburst Nation. The former is too long. The latter sounds happy and allows growth in many areas. She has no difficulty in changing her biz name because eBay operates worldwide. Paper works that came with the said change were not fun, though. Lysa lives in the Twin Cities area. There are a lot of thrift stores in their area. She does not have a problem in finding her stuff. She does the sourcing alone. She hand-picks everything from the thrift stores. She also gets referrals from friends and goes to people's houses. Sometimes, she meets them in the parking lot after their work. Lysa gives cash for items she gets from people. She tries to beat the consign

Beth has been an eBay seller for over 13 years. She started out as a stay at home mom selling her children's outgrown clothing in order to pay for a family trip to Walt Disney World. She has now moved into catering to the Busy Woman with stylish fashions. eBay has provided her with a fabulous fun filled career and the ability to raise her children at home, many more visits to Walt Disney World, become debt free and pay for her children's college. She now has a weekly E zine/newsletter filled with tips and tricks for the Busy Woman, website entitled Busybethie along with her Busy With Style blog. Interesting Notes Beth does not intend to make a business out of eBay. She only does it to make money to go to Walt Disney World. True indeed, eBay gives her the money she needed. It took her a couple of years before she realized that she wants to keep eBay going and develop it more. Amazingly eBay makes Beth debt-free too, including paying off their house. She takes her own pictures. She turned their theater room

Lizzy and her husband Tom have been selling full time on eBay since 2011. They fully support their family of four with their e-commerce businesses. They specialize in barely vintage nostalgic items. Interesting Notes Lizzy at the age of 22, a mom and a college student with no business experience, started selling online. She started with her textbooks from college, sold it at Amazon and then move into eBay selling junks. She went full time on eBay in 2012. 80% of their sales now are from eBay. They focus more on eBay because Lizzy like the treasure hunting part of it. Moreso, they can profit more on eBay. Their niche, barely vintage nostalgic, stems from what they like and know. Their market is the kids in the 90's who now have children. Lizzy believes that moms like her have a nostalgic feeling. They want their children to play with what they had played before. The 90's kids can relive their childhood through their eBay store. They source their stuff from Craigslist, Facebook, Thrift Stores, Estate Sales,

Charlene started selling on eBay in 1998 and on Amazon in 2002, and has grown her business from a $100 investment to a business that grosses in the high-six figures, all without employees! Known for her laser focus on wholesale sourcing before it was the cool thing to do, Charlene brings organizational skills, business smarts and enthusiasm to everything she does. Interesting Notes In 1984, Charlene has a brick and mortar store for yarns where she learned how to source her products. It is for people who knit and crochet and spun roll. But, yet, she shut the store down when she started spooling her time between Wyoming and Hawaii. 3 years after closing her brick and mortar store, Charlene ventured to e-commerce. She is living in Hawaii then. She got back to her contacts, took a $100 and placed an order with somebody. She got the products and sold them. Since then she has kept building her e-commerce business. At the time she started selling on eBay, pictures are not yet required in the listing. People coul

Vic Cruz has been married for over 28 years and has 4 children. He is a coach for the Special Olympics when time allows and enjoys walking dogs and working on old cars. His eBay journey began in 2006 when he was restoring a 1968 mustang. A friend told him that he could make money selling parts on eBay. To the junk yards he went and proved his friend was right. He was amazed at how much money could be made on eBay and has been selling since. Interesting Notes Vic is from New York but now lives in Virginia. He has a full-time job as a police officer. He only operates his eBay business when he got home. After dinner, he will go to his basement office and work there until midnight. On Saturdays, he works 5 hours. On Sundays, he will get off and run around body shops. He started his business when he was restoring his 1968 Mustang. He does not want to take money out of their household to pay for its restoration. His friend suggested that he could make money selling parts on eBay. Together with his friend, they w

Miriam Otto is an eBay blogger and educator with 10 years experience selling on eBay. She is a frequent guest on eBay Radio and has participated in eBay seller panels and projects. She was interviewed by U.S. News and wrote for the Auctiva website. Last year, Miriam sold $188,000 worth of pre-owned items on eBay. Almost all of the items she sold were purchased at yard sales and thrift shops. Interesting Notes Miriam is the eBay video grand prize winner in 2009. It is a video contest, in an eBay event she went to, where she shared why she was on eBay, her lifestyle, and being an eBay class teacher then. Miriam works 40 hrs a week in an adult school; 4 days a week. She runs her eBay store together with her boyfriend, Johnny. He does eBay full time and in-charged with their shopping and shipping. They have people listing for them. Miriam takes charge of going through all the schedule of the listing. She makes sure that no mistakes are made. Her eBay store has a variety of brands. She has 3 eBay IDs; BlueFrogS