$40 to $250 in hopefully 30 days on eBay

That should be a very easy target to hit, There are some rules I follow when Picking that I use but will follow your progress and see your thoughts. maybe I should pm them so I put my cards down before any secrets are shown :-)

I wish you all the luck. Your goal is really realistic. Keep reinvesting the profits. I will follow your journey!

Good to see you chose this for a path and will watch how it turns out. Are you going to share the shipping costs and ebay fees? The biggest part that would help newbies is the packing and cost to deliver the item once it sells.

Gary Vee did something similar to this in his videos this past fall. Spend a few hundred make a grand. He came up with some big numbers, but a few weeks latter some of those items did not sell .

Day 1

So post #1 of the journey. The son and I went shopping today with the help of Grandma.. and you will understand why she was there in a minute. haha

Sourcing for items to sell be it a garage sale or in Walmart or any other store or a thrift store there are some pretty critical elements to ensure some amount of success. There are a couple different types of strategies, but for right now I want to focus mostly on quick flip concepts.

The absolute first thing you want to do is put the E-bay app on your phone. With the app, you can actually scan bar codes to pull up the item. You can take a picture of an item and it not so often will pull something up, and you can text search items as well. The MOST IMPORTANT thing the app does for you is not only pull up current listings.. you can pull up SOLD listings.

What items are being listed for means very little.. what they actually SELL for means everything. In the app you search for something and then in the upper right is the word "Filter" you would press on that and then scroll down to "sold Items" and when pressing this you will notice "Completed Items" gets turned on as well. You can then look at the past 90 days of sales and what an item actually sells for.

The same can be done from a computer. once you are on a search result in the upper left you will be looking for the word " Advanced " and you will select that and then check the box below the search button that says " Sold Listings" and then click search.

I can tell you this.. the 2 platforms do NOT provide the same results. The computer based results will tend to have more listed items. But regardless the information is still valid.

One of the key elements in sourcing and specifically sourcing items for quick sale is determining demand. There is an equation for this I will get into later but for right now what you ultimately are looking for is a listing where there are more sold items than listed items. meaning demand is super high.

A great example of this is an item we actually bought today " WWE SmackDown VS Raw 2010 for PSP " with 20 available listings and 36 sold listings. THIS is exactly what you are looking for. and to give you a taste of the profit potential.. the game was purchased for $2.24 and sells for right around $20.00

Video games with the exception of Xbox 360 games and most sports games that are year related ( Madden 17, or Fifa 12 ) at the right price are generally good buys. right now NES and PSP seem to be on fire - and these can often be found super cheap - EVEN at Goodwill.

One of the things you want to watch for when looking up items is the number of listings.. the more listings there are the harder it will be to sell... If you can sit on the purchase as an investment and the profit is there, it is worth the investment if money can be made - it just takes longer. and right now we are trying to focus on quick flips.

The flip side of this is items with very few to NO listings and little to no sales is something you want to stay away from. I will say this however... this is exactly items my wife looks for - again if the price is right and you have the time, it MAY be worth the investment.

So right now we are looking for items with high turn over. The next thing you can look for is BRAND. If you are in mens clothing and a Tommy Hilfiger shirt is sitting there for like $5.00 you buy it. ( an add in.. when I say " shirts " I mean like button down type.. T-shirts can work, but you have to pay extra attention ) I would say all brands across the board the bigger the logo the better.. the brighter the colors the better. You just cant go wrong in Mens clothing with Tommy, Polo, Izod, Nike, Adidas, Puma, Tommy Bahama ( we call this tommy 2 ) You just have to watch the cost vs how much they are selling for.

Shoes... If you don't know the brand look it up.. if you DO know the brand look at that label and pull up that specific model of shoe... don't ever think just because its Nike, its worth it.. I swear 9 times out of 10 you get home and it ends up being sucky purchase.

its not shoes in this case but we did make a purchase today we probably should not have.. but there is still enough there to make it work - the good bad and the ugly.. im going to share it.

So what we bought.. we spent a whopping $40.03 today, and bought 13 items in total. Our average cost per item works out to $3.08 - this is a number we work with, but here I will give a more exact number.

So a quick idea how I like to price things.. obviously I am gong to price according to market first.. if you price to high it wont sell, and if you price to low, you obviously are leaving money on the table. A GENERAL rule of thumb. After everything is all said and done, I like to have 3x the cost left. If I buy something for $2.00 at the end I want $6.00 in the end. If I have $100 in, I want $300 - this is another guide towards understanding if the item is worth buying.

Below I am going to list each item. The first number will be The COST, the next number will be the list price, next will be sold price, next will be Ebays 10% fee PLUS Paypals 6% fee, next will be shipping supplies ( boxes envelopes ) after that will be shipping, and lastly profit

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95 ( the loser I mentioned earlier )
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $24.95 ( this listing has 2 watchers )
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $49.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

So at this point I bet you are asking where did Grandma fit into all of this... well shopping day was also seniors discount day and we saved 25% or $13.41. Don't think we don't call Grandma all the time.. she is the best $13 is $13.. and no, im not really on a budget here.. but if you are.. this is the type of thing that can add up. we seriously call her all the time and I have never really sat down and figured the numbers, but between her with the seniors discount and a buddy of mine with a military discount we literally save THOUSANDS every year.

So as it stands right now we spent $40.03 and if everything sells at full price we are looking at $259.35 before the expenses. I KNOW already my packaging expenses will be right under $5.00. my fees would be $41.50 and the only number that will be variable will be my shipping at this point. Round 1 I am hoping to come in around $150.00 after all fees and expenses giving me roughly $110.00 in total profit after removing the initial $40.00 falling just short of my ideal 3X number.

Anyone that may wonder.. we shopped for 1.5 hours, and it took me and the little one about 2 hours to list the 13 items. At this point everything is already packed and USPS comes to us every day so placing labels on the packages will be what a 1/2 hour? so 4 hours invested.

I will be back tomorrow with a listing update and I will answer any questions there may be AND go over the #1 mistake that can be made in this whole process ( aside from buying a game that sells for $6.95 and costs $5.91 out the door <bows head in shame> LOL - It happens.. win most lose some )

Looks like your gong to do well and we think very similar so I will add my formula to the mix.

1. How hard is it to get the product out of 10 - 1 easy 10 Rare
2. What is the demand for the product out of 10 - 1 low 10 High
3. what is the quality of the product out of 10 - 1- poor 10 Mint.

I do this in my head and when I add it up I must get what I call an Adult Number = 21 or above

4. Once I find an Adult product I then as can I buy this at a price that will allow me to make the level of profit I require, if so then I can go ahead and buy the product, if no, then it stays for the next person.

With very little if any exception do I break these rules.

Background Been flipping for more years than I can count and have always made money and if you follow the formula you will rarley if ever loose money even when you sort of get it wrong you can always most get your money back.

Some notes, even when you buy using the rules, it can take months to sell your products at times, and there is nothing wrong with price or anything, you just need to sit tight and wait for the right buyer.

5. Because of this the last bit of the puzzle is quantity, with the right stuff at quantity you always will be turning over stock regrdless if some of it sits for a while.

That all said recently I have decided to move out of this (late last year) and am currently selling all remaing stock and not buying in anymore, not because its bad but I needed a new direction, plus I have sheds full, my office full and my attick full of stock and just a mid life crisis and over it and persuing a new angle in life.

One difference I can see is that I aimed for 5 - 10 times my money and I suppose 5 would be an average, some examples of the money you can make, a cane laundry basket (industrial vintage) paid $20 sold $240 6 months later, toy car set ( vintage ) paid $5 sold it the other day $50, Vintage christmas decs, paid $80 sold $400, brass bowl, paid $2 worth $400 (i kept this for my own private collection) $10 for some vintage mags, framed and sold the posters $800 nett return, and I could sit here for years typing these stories, so once you learn like anything, yes you can make a few Dollars, I suppose I have learnt to be really hard when I buy, but in a nice way, but it is only when you buy that you make money, so good to get that right.

even after selling everything, I will have enough vintage posters and artwork leftover to keep me busy framing until I pass I think.

Good luck with your experiment, and its beautiful that your are teaching the little ones and working as a family, I wish you every success.

Love it that you are involving your kid.

Important lessons here ...

You won't find learn these hard won skills taught in any school or college curriculum!

Thanks for sharing!!

-z

Day 2 Update

Sat down with the boy today and we were looking over the comps and the amount of traffic each item was getting after day 1. we tweeked some prices a bit.. and about an hour after doing this we Sold the Bible... and had just added a couple of bucks on that.. so that was cool

A quick throw in here.. Bibles... they fall pretty much into 2 categories.. there are cheap ones.. and then there are those that you can make profit on. Pretty much every time I see one in a thrift store or the like I buy it.. cost is always minimal and the potential seems to almost always be there AND they ship at MEDIA rate which helps a ton.

So real quick here is the update:

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $79.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

Saturdays are generally slow for our stores... So like mentioned in the post above we try to push a bit to get some sales on our slower days. Sundays and Tuesdays are our best days, and generally Mondays and Fridays would be our worst.

As promised.. lets talk about the #1 killer of profit when selling on e-bay - Its SHIPPING.. and I think more specifically its WEIGHT. So I am going to go over a list of the packing materials we use ( the list is pretty short actually ) and then talk about shipping specifically.

We actually only BUY 4 different envelopes and 2 boxes. Everything else is either shipper supplied ( USPS or Fed EX ) OR we will go out and source a FREE box to ship items that go beyond what we normally sell. You can get the boxes for USPS in 2 ways.. you can stop in your local post office OR you can visit their site USPS.gov or make it easy visit here: https://store.usps.com/store/results...ies/_/N-7d0v8v and order the boxes online ( they are free ) just a note, they will not be delivered tomorrow hahaha in some cases it can take a week or 2

The 4 envelopes and 2 boxes look like this:

• 6 x 9 Poly Bag
• 6 x 9 Padded Envelope
• 8.5 x 11 Poly Bag
• 8.5 x 11 Padded Envelope
• 6 x 6 x 6 Box
• 14 x 8 x 8 Box

Our only other expense is tape and white craft paper. We gave up on tape guns and use the pre packages 50yd sized hand sized dispenser deals. we actually stock 2 different ones.. from Walmart we get the Scotch brand.. the tape itself is a bit thinner and sticks really well. And the other is from Dollar General, I think Duck brand and its a bit thicker and a bit more robust. Both cost like $3.00 a roll.

The padded envelopes we buy in bulk.. BUT you can get both in 12 packs from Walmart for like $4.00 so your package cost is like $.35 ( we pay less - in bulk - but for this I am using the walmart cost ) The poly bags we order as well actually from e-bay Im pretty sure you can get 100 count for like $8.00.

The boxes.. we get the 6 x 6 x 6 from Home Depot... $.49 and the larger 14 x 8 x 8 we buy off of ebay as well and pay .60 each.. but we buy 1000 at a time anymore. This s a new box size we added recently, so its probably not a must have.

Aside from the poly bags.. everything you need is probably obtainable between WalMart and Home Depot. IF you need bigger boxes.. Walmart late night when they are stocking shelves.. how big is your car? hahaha it may not be pretty but when you are just beginning it will get the job done. which leaves me to the craft paper - brown or white it doesn't matter.. which ever you can get cheaper. we use it to wrap existing product boxes to ship, we use it for padding - we use it... one of my other business' is Large Format Printing.. so we have a ton of scrap that comes from that so we really don't spend a lot on this.. but f you have to you can go online and buy huge rolls for next to nothing.

On to Shipping.... Lets start with watching this:

"https://www.youtube.com/embed/65BeX5FHIvM"

Reyes cracks me up... if you actually watch the video you would have seen Shipping cost chewed him up. If you look back at my post from yesterday.. you may have noticed #1 everything is already packed #2 I may not know the exact amount of shipping.. but I have a real good idea. So lets make sure what happened to Reyes, doesn't happen to you!

So first things first click this and book mark it: https://www.ebay.com/shp/Calculator?...45375397262459 ( in the near future you will use this A LOT! ) You really want to play around with this a bit get an idea of weight and cost. I will go over some of the real basics here.. but if you play around enough you will find some hidden little sweet spots here and there.

So having that screen open lets look at packages that are 16 oz ( 1 pound )and smaller.. with this weight you can ship First Class pretty in-expensively. once you have entered dimensions and all that the next screen you want to click on "eBay Rates" and that will adjust for the eBay discount. USPS postage is "Zoned" basically the further away the place you are shipping the more it will cost. Priority Fixed rate boxes however are just that Fixed rate.. but back to 1st class. there are price increases in increments. 1 to 4 ounces the same price, 5 to 8 the same 9 to 12 and then 13 to 16. So basically the more something weighs the more it will cost to ship.

Once you step over that 1 pound mark.. first class disappears as an option, and the expense of shipping increases pretty fast.

WHEN YOU ARE STARTING OUT Try your very best to stay UNDER 1 Pound.- to the point I would actually suggest a " Fish Measuring Scale " ( look it up on Google ) you can get one for like $8.00.

A personal experience... I picked up a A&W root beer mug not to long ago.. they sell for like $16.00. Comps looked awesome.. its $2.00 Im in... YEAH it was so heavy it would have cost over $13.00 to ship the dang thing - without question a Reyes moment - Im staring at the damn mug as we speak actually hahaha

So when I get home with the stuff I bought.. the very first thing we do is figure out how we are going to package the item, and then the item goes on the scale with the packaging and the item, and that cost is written down.. from there we do a much more in depth analysis of pricing before we actually create the listing, take the photos and ultimately list the item. - aside from the geography variant of the shipping cost.. we pretty much know what the bottom line on the product is before it is listed.

So that's the absolute basics.. if you have questions by all means ask.. ill answer anything and everything! Thanks for reading and following along!

Tomorrow I think I will go over photos - If there is another topic you would rather learn about let me know!

Taking Photos For e-Bay

Some of the things I am going to start sharing on this topic, and a few of the others comes from my experience at my "Day Job". I own a marketing agency. We deal with Website development, SEO, CRO ( Conversion Rate Optimization ) Social Media, Print Media, Vinyl, and just about anything else a small to mid sized business needs to " Advertise " .

With CRO there is a lot of time spent in understanding what people look at and click on. I have run and have access to the results of 10's of thousands of test specifically about the impact of images in the sales process on commerce sites. There is without question some stand out results - AND there are some stand out reasons to buck the " Norm " And I will go over both of those here.

There are 3-4 things that people see when looking at product... that would be the Picture, the Price, and the Listing Title. Obviously today we are going to discuss the Picture. The #1, do not break rule ( Aside from the exception I will explain later.)

TAKE YOUR IMAGES WITH A WHITE BACKGROUND

This is right up there with do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to jail.

with eBay when you do a search there tends to be 3 items visible. If only 1 of those 3 has a white background.. it will be the one to be clicked more than 80% of the time. And the bottom line is all things being equal ( price and matching what the buyer wants ) a click equals a sale.

The question then is how do you take pictures with white backgrounds? The answer is a light box. you can go onto Google and look up " Photo Light Box " and get tons of ideas of how to make one yourself. There are some pretty cool examples made from cardboard boxes - and my preference would be the ones made from PVC.

The closest example that I could find to the type I have built would be in this video:

https://youtu.be/hbbm_PNkGng

Unfortunately Joe is speaking Spanish, but you really don't need to hear how to build this. I will note in the video he does use glue to put this together and I will tell you, you don't need to do that. PVC fits real tight together.

The important part is to shine the light through the paper on the sides ( I also have top lighting as well with mine ) The primary lightbox we use has 24 inch square sides and the back is as wide as the roll of white craft paper ( 30 inches ). we also have a much larger one we use for clothing and the like.

On the smaller unit we use lights like these: https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-75-W...0PDQ/205139241 one on each side and 2 on top. You want to use " Daylight " ( 5000 K ) bulbs in these and I prefer to use LED flood light bulbs. you basically want to get something like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmart...SD02/303574522 Super bright and super white.

A super quick camera trick to get your whites even whiter.. on your phone or even a DSLR set your white balance to " florescent " this basically removes any yellow from shadowing or whatever that may still be there even with the 5000k lights.

Another eBay trick.. take your images " Landscape " vs " portrait ". Hold your phone length ways between your hands vs up and down like you are making a phone call. eBay's image place holder is actually square 500x500 minimum and 9000x9000 max BUT the height will actually adjust to fit.

Phones and cameras take images with a 2:3 ratio - not so square right? but making sure you take your images landscape means the ratio looks like 3:2 so the width of the image will fill in the square from side to side, and then the box actually closes in the gap from top to bottom.

You can go out into any search listing and see images that were taken portrait style, they will have white lines on the left and right side, vs the others taken landscape that do not have that. I think the non white stripe look is more appealing.. AND again I have data that suggests it performs better.

If you really wanted to take this to the next level you could actually go in and crop each of your images into a square format - a little more work, and I have no data that would suggest it is worth the effort. Saying that, I think we have only tested this a hand full of times - and looking out at the listings the square images do look pretty good.. but from experience I can say that my landscape image listings out perform square image listings.

And now onto the EXCEPTION rule. the best example of this I know of is looking up " Apple iPhone ". and scroll down... you will see it. when ALL of the listing images are white, it sometimes pays off to buck the system. The bright yellow is about retina breaking LOL

And that's about it... an added link here: https://developer.ebay.com/devzone/m...es.html#Image2 this is eBays image guidelines to look at. I think the most important take away from that page is basically if you didn't take the picture, don't post the picture.


*** Added later ***

So I left out a very important aspect of pictures.. how many to use. Basically the more you use the better.. there are 12 spaces available. I do use 12, but NOT all the time. It literally depends on what I am listing. I will look up the top 5 comp listings for a product I am going to sell. I will count the number of images. An example would be the video games.. 3 of the listings had 3 photos.. one of them had 2 and one of them had 1.

Photos are used by Cassini ( eBays search spider ) as a variable to determine your products ranking ability. eBay wants good user experience no? Photos above anything else will give a buyer a really good idea of the shape and condition of the item they are buying. The more photos you have, the better.

I used 5 Photos for the video games.. we actually use 5 almost always for video games. Clothing... almost always 12, Shoes generally 10 and sometimes up to 12. Anytime there is something in a sealed box.. 6 is pushing most of the time.

how many times have you looked on a listing in eBay and they like have duplicate images and all that.. and I know I say - what a jerk?! and click off and look for another one.. be relevant with the images you use.. don't just slam in 12 images because it gets you better rank.. I have a feeling Cassini probably knows a duplicate image. Just do whats right for the customer to understand what it is they are getting! That's kinda all that eBay could ask for.. what the customer would ask for.. and what you should deliver!

So again.. any questions feel free to ask.

I think tomorrow we will get into the listing title? Image and title both being important.. the TITLE hands down is the most important!

I will get an update up here in a bit - spoiler alert - it was super poor today and I will see you all tomorrow!

Day 2 Update

Today sucked for this project - no other way to say it.. I will get into real quick a product I purchased for this that was a mistake.. but no sales today. All of my other products on the other hand.. strongest day of the year so far. Kinda strange actually.. but it happens.

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

So the Coffee mug.. I generally do pretty well with these #muglife.. they don't always sell right away but they all sell ( well except the dang A&W mug ) I am going to go ahead and share some details about this listing because it is a pretty good learning lesson.

Search " Edible Arrangements coffee mug " and don't look at the listings.. because if you have read any of the 2 posts above you would be able to identify my listing.. but do the search and click on " sold listings "

Scroll through the sold listings and there is a good number of Feb sales right.. now look closer - 6 of those were all in the same day OUCH!!! So basically remove those listings out and the sales history suggest slow moving product.. except for the day someone decided it would be a great idea to buy 6 of these - for gifts I am assuming?!

So back over at the search result... I have followed all the image rules.. I have followed all of the title rules that I will give tomorrow... Its ranked in #1 #2 position.. and 48+ hours after listing. not a ONE SINGLE VIEW - NOTHING zero nada.

The lesson here.. PAY ATTENTION to every little detail. Granted its a $.74 cup but it could easily be a $74.00 item as well - and that could hurt.

So anyways we are heading into Monday OH YEAH.. the worst day of the week usually.. this should be exciting! hahaha Have a GREAT day, and I will be here later to let you know how it went!

Not you started this weekend and already sold two items and only need $14.45 to get your initial investment. If you only have 2 dud purchase the mugs and the 1 play station you should end up with a great project.

When you get the boxes from the UPSP do you use the craft paper on the outside of the box before shipping ?

If the photo is important to get your link clicked.. the TITLE is important to get FOUND. I don't know how many know this but, by DEFAULT when you search eBay, you are searching for text within the TITLE only. And that is actually only a half truth of sorts and we will get into that.

You can search eBay using other text in the listing by checking the "Includes Description" box right below the blue Search button in the upper right of the screen. To be honest I have no clue how to do this in the mobile app

So now you can see the importance of spending some time with this element of your listing. You obviously want to include the brand, The broad category ( Women, Mens, Unisex, Kids, Youth, Toddler, Infant ) Color, size, year and whatever else.

Something that I do is use e-Bays search to see what the auto fill choices are. Another thing I do in the listing itself is look at the "Item Specifics" and see what options are there. I then go out to other top listings and look at their "Item Specifics" as well.

The Title is 80 Characters including spaces, and I feel you want to use all 80 if you can - and make each character count. Forget stuff like C@@L or L@@K , that's not helping. when was the last time you search for something and included "NIB" ( New In Box ) - the answer is you haven't, and THAT doesn't need to be there either.

Unlike many other search engines cassini doesn't seem to put a preference in where in those 80 characters a word is. So something like " Womens long sleeve blue & red long sleeved dress size 6 Ralph Lauren " is no different than " Ralph Lauren Womens long sleeve blue & red long sleeved dress size 6 " in terms of searching the item.

In the above instance I would put "Ralph Lauren" first myself.. and that has nothing to do with search, but more to do with brand recognition and click ability. Because THAT is the other aspect of the title that has to be considered. I think of it this way.. how much of the item details can I get in the Title? how much information can I give the shopper before they even click on the link?

So now onto the half truth. I study this stuff more than enough to know the "Title" is not the only place cassini pulls data in order to fill search results. There is NO QUESTION it extracts data from the " Item Specifics " section of the listing. That being said.. you want to fill in anything and everything you can. If you feel it may be of value... I would add things in there. I just don't think there is such thing as too much when it comes to " Item Specifics ".

I can only imagine there may come a point where repeated terms in there may be considered stuffing.. but I have never really tested that. The reality is in terms of ranking items in search there are plenty more variables.. the title and Item Specifics happen ot be the only 2 text related variables.

Hope that Helps!

Day 3 Update

Went exactly as expected.. nothing, but again Monday is just the absolute slowest day of the week for us. Did do a bit of shopping today with the boy.. bought an item I will add to the list tomorrow.

Little Savidge actually found 2 banger items today, but one would break the current budget ( and really only by a few dollars ).. so we are going to keep that one out... he was a bit bum'd about that idea.. selling that one item alone would put us over the goal.. and YEAH it is THAT banger - and I probably would have walked right passed it. - he got that from his mother.

To be honest I probably hate the purchasing process the most. I am more of the tech geek guy that has the ability and understands HOW to put an item in front of the eyeballs that need to see it. I LOVE selling stuff.. just hate the buying it part. and with that todays grid:

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

same as yesterday - and again Monday I totally expected this. I will say we did get some traffic across the listings, and a couple of " watchers " I believe we have 5 of the items now with watchers. 3 games, the boots, and the Mens Harley shirt.

I am going to talk about this more that's for sure but now seems like a good time to maybe start the conversation... EXPECTATIONS... If you are needing to get cash fast.. Hopefully here in the next day or 2 I will be able to show you CAN do it... Like DWolfe points out it really isn't a bad start.

There is some math that goes into what to expect and later I will get into that.. and right now I can say we are breaking the math rules a bit... but I want to say the item selection has something to do with it.

The Bible.. it was a giant print reference bible in REALLY good condition... anytime we get our hands on one of these it usually sells in hours.

I am still a bit puzzled we still have the games.. I thought for sure those would be gone Sunday. For the most part really good titles and they are priced really well, and are ranking in search really well... The one that did sell, Little Savidge said that was the best one.. both of us look at the traffic across the listings and the one we both thought was going to be the last to sell is crushing the views.

And with that a seller tip.... When you get a ton of views.. that is a good thing.. don't get all antsy and think you are priced to high because its not selling. The AVERAGE conversion rate on eBay is 1.5%... meaning 1.5 items sell for every 100 listings looked at.

You can actually take that little bit of information and scale down / up to the number of products you have listed on your account. IF I only had those 13 items listed.. I/you would have to reach 200 views to sell 3 items. Including the 2 sold items, we are currently at 122 views across our 13 listings.

Our current conversion rate on this project is 40:1 - so we are due a sale any time now.. and should have another 2 before hitting 200 views - BUT I am NOT expecting that.. but it would be nice hahaha

Again this is the side of sales I understand REALLY well, and I will get into more...

So for tomorrow i am thinking of leaving a list of references I have found to be helpful.. some youtube channels and like. Its like an unwritten eBay rule that you are not supposed to share your secrets or something.. so I know it is a bit frustrating looking for information on this stuff. so I do have some goto sources I watch and look at that dont always lay it right out there like this.. but there is definitely something to learn from them.. I know I have.

So again.. questions comments? Ill do my best to be around to answer those!

Thanks for reading!

Day 4 Update

Had some family issues today.. My wifes Grandmother - so its heartbreaking a bit, but also expected but focused on that most of the day.

Nothing sold again... I didnt have the opportunity to get the new item listed, will get that tomorrow. but below are the numbers

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

I will be on track again tomorrow

See you then

This Christmas one of the gifts that landed in my lap was book by Scott Pape, Barefoot Investor for Families.

I've read some of his newspaper articles and his style of writing is easy to read and digest.

Anyway, I left the book lying around, as you do, hoping my wife would pick it up because despite demonstrating many of the principles over the years and encouraging her to do a multitude of things to assist in the wealth creation of the family. She has always preferred to listen to "others" advice relating to many areas.

Surprise outcome of having book lying around was my seven year old decided to pick it up. Little subtitle on cover "The Only Kid's money guide you'll ever need"

Book is aimed at parents educating kids about money.

Seven year old has largely read book and got his three jars set up to save, spend and share his pocket money.

Anyway one of the 10 tips, which seven year old has already identified, is to buy and sell something secondhand.

I'm going to share this thread with him because I'm pretty sure he will get most of the content. (he reads at a 15 year old level).

Hopefully it will inspire him to foster some entrepreneurial skills and once he's got a few things flipping on Ebay (via my account) his mother might get with the program.

Thanks for the journey.

I'm glad I browsed this part of the forum again.

Best regards,

Ozi.

Day 5 Update

Goose egged again today. And to be honest I am not in the slightest discouraged. 4 of the 6 games we have left have over 25 views each. 2 of them hit the 50+ mark today.. its only a matter of time - Those will go.

The boots had some ( 3 ) offers today, sent back counter offers. And again not to concerned here... we got 3 offers that honestly were not that bad. All 3 offers would be right at or just short of doubling... 100% profit is not always a bad thing, I just think we can eek out a bit more, and the interest is there.

So the numbers:

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

Still have not listed the new item to the list. Happens to be a Canterbury US Rugby jersey blank ( meaning no name or number across the back ) we paid $7.03 on this and the comps are in the $40.00+ range. 3X + shipping puts us at about $28.00 so this will be a 4X + profit margin item.

The BANGER my son spotted the other day was a Terry Lebonte ( Nascar ) frosted Flakes Team Coat. In a XL, it weighed in at 6 lbs to be shipped ( so the sucker was heavy )we paid $37.00 for it and we listed it for $399.00 and it sold in a touch less than 2 hours. It is a 1997 season coat.. so its just on the inside of what would be deemed "Vintage" ( 25 years ) and it might as well have been brand new. - it for sure checked all the boxes!

when I picked little Savidge up from school today, the first thing he asked was about the coat.. and the look on his face was priceless when I told him it sold already, And then I told him we decided to up the price a bit... he was like Yeeet LETS GO!!! ( translation - Yeeeees!!!! - That's awesome!!!!! ) hahaha

BRAND and eBay

I was going to discuss some reference material for you all today.. but am feeling the need to side track a bit and discuss something that is a bit elusive to me, and appears to be in general with eBay sellers... and that is BRAND.

My day job if you will is developing BRAND, and leveraging BRAND for my clients. In terms of longevity for any business I feel that this essential for long term growth and development. eBay reselling is in essence leveraging the brand of the product you are selling. Going to Goodwill and paying $3.00 per shirt be it Polo or Nike or Puritan, it clearly becomes a no brainer the Puritan shirt is going to remain on the rack.

To be honest there is a part of me that is fine with this... BUT as a business owner this creates issues. As hip as I try to be.. the generation gap thing is really starting to catch up... I am not understanding what is " HOT " in the market place until its too late in many cases AND the life span of many of the current fads are very short. So what happens is I am unable to get product from my suppliers til the fad has passed at a price point that would be needed to create profit.

So to clarify that a bit more... As a fad trends the price of product increases basic supply and demand.. demand is high price increases. The fad then peaks.. and then plummets. The marketspace is now filled with product and the price drops considerable - again classic supply and demand. You can very quickly be caught buying high and having to sell low IE lose money.

A GREAT example of this would be Fidgit Spinners. I literally have suppliers that will sell me 100ct bulk spinners for $.10 a piece. But the reality is I probably could not give these away.

So as an eBay reseller you obviously want to buy low and sell high. You also want to understand the demand of the BRAND you are buying to sell... because THAT is obviously important. Sony PSP games there is demand.. you can get them cheap, and there is decent amount of markup to be made. The flip side of this would be Xbox 360 games.. The are hit and miss.. far more miss than hit...

and to even think of paying $3.00 for a game you might sell for $6.00 and it cost you about $3.00 to ship.. I am not sure it would be worth the time to go through and scan and scan and scan to find a winner here and there. - I actually not to long ago spent 1 hour scanning games to find 1 that sold for like $20.00, and at the time thought that was alright.. but when I got back and logged " shopping time " with purchase and potential profit.. no the hour was wasted. ( And in a later post I will go over how we track this! )

Somebody I watch is Ralli Roots ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRv...XV_W6zwPpMgWTg ) In terms of a Reference.. I would suggest they are right up there on the list. what intrigues me the most is in their thrifting videos is the CONSISTENCY of product they pick up.

So getting this back on topic.... My wife and I primarily stray away from clothes.. and focus on pretty much everything else.. our eBay stores have "Categories" but lack any amount of consistency. watching Ralli Roots They very much carry a vintage theme across the products they look for and buy.

So why do i bring this up? Because they are so focused on what it is they buy... As a WHOLE there is a BRAND that can be created around that. And THAT can get powerful real fast.

So whats the difference? My Instagram accounts for our stores are CLUGES of photos of STUFF.. one really does not relate to the other.. WHO would follow that? The flip side of that being Hey We sell Vintage stuff.. check out this and this and that and the other. BRAND then speaks to Consistency vs some eBay store that SELLS brands. Make sense?

Part of the idea for the new store front I am working with this project in, is TRYING to identify a BRAND. I don't live in Florida like Ralli Roots... I will NEVER see that stuff in my Goodwill.

The things that I can go in and grab in abundance is not all that profitable... BUT I teeter on the VALUE of Consistency - I mean I can buy FLANNEL til the cows come home.. but none of it is going to be Hilfiger.. and Yes I can buy Hilfiger short sleeve shirt all day every day but they cost $3.00 and sell for about $15.00 and cost $4.00 to ship.. so there would be a whole lot of $10's to get to $1000 a week. And I am not sure the sell rate would support that either.

I see great overall potential with consistency of product in a store.. developing off platform promotion for YOUR brand.. and sending that traffic to your store.

Getting in the game for profit is one thing.. but looking at long term and longevity.. taking a bit of time and understanding how you can develop a brand and overall image with what it is you are selling would be well worth the effort.

A kinda case in point.. Ozi... developing brand around his Worlds Record of throwing something the furthest ( which happened to be a modified Boomerang ) and selling Boomerangs. A website.. social media.. and then using Ebay as a sales distribution point.. makes pretty good business sense.

as always, any questions Ill be happy to answer.. and comments.. they are greatly appreciated!

Day 6 Update

Made some sales...FINALLY hahaha so after today we have recouped or initial $40.03 and we are $31.11 in profit! woo hoo

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

2 "Secret" Ebay Reseller Tips

I cant say right off the bat both of these will save you money.. but once you reach "Pro Seller" status.. the BOTH save you money

so #1 has to do with your return policy. "FREE Returns" is HIGHLY recommended, and highly debated. I just recently started doing this - as in a few days ago on all new listings. Sounds a bit drastic but hear me out... Aside from Profit margins the #1 thing you need to protect being a eBay Reseller is your feedback or sellers rating. Negative feedback can effect you in ways you might not know.

Just starting, negative feedback may not have that much impact. but as you build your business it starts to play more of a role. To achieve "Top Rated Seller" you had better have a pretty spotless seller rating. So to get this you have to have 100 sales with a value of over $1000 within 12 months. When you achieve this you get a 10% discount on final fees.. so instead of 10% you pay 9% basically. No matter how you look at this 1% can add up pretty fast depending on the volume you do.

So you ask.. so how does free returns protect this? eBay is a bit more give and take than many out on the net give credit to them for. for instance.. IF you offer free returns and everything is done in the needed time frames - the customer CAN NOT leave negative OR Neutral feedback. Ill repeat that - the customer CAN NOT leave negative OR Neutral feedback.

IF it happens to show up on your acct, you can call eBay and they will quickly and gladly remove it - as in it never happened. Given the variables needed to keep "Top Rated Seller" are defect rate, time to ship, time to posting tracking, and cases closed by ebay.. removing the customer variable that you have NO control over.. you are now the captain of your own ship.

When you go out on the net and look this stuff up.. people complain like there is no tomorrow at how much this would cost them... People say they have like MASS returns all the time. On the store that I am using for this series of posts.. I have 212 seller transactions and a 0% return rate. On my oldest store we have 6 digit transactions and .04% return rate.

The number thrown around the most is to expect a 2% return rate.. I personally don't understand it.. well I do but that's for another discussion! hahaha

So for ME doing this only MAKES SENSE.. and cushions me from the whim of anything outside of my control - even if I had returns.. I would still look at the expense as being insurance for my seller rating.

#2 out on the web is a bit elusive.. kinda funny really... even eBay staff I don't think totally understand it. BUT.. when using the eBay APP to either CREATE a listing or REVISE a listing you click Revise or Create it there is a series of clicks "Easy Pricing" and "Boosting" and then the last click is "Share Your Link". Instead of clicking DONE.. reach for the middle of the screen and click "Share Your Link" and then send it off to your e-mail.

Once you have this little gem of a link.. you can use it to post directly to said product anywhere out on the net EXCEPT on eBay itself.. and what does it do? If someone visits your product by using that link from say Instagram.. and they BUY that product... Ebay will CREDIT you the seller fees.. IE 10%.

I have been playing with this bit over the past 4 months now.. and YES you do have to wait to see it appear, but it WILL be there. As in last month the new store had a $9.88 credit, and across all 4 of our store fronts it was $2300.00+ in fees returned to us.

Now with this little bit of information added, go back and read the BRAND post, and you begin to understand creating a following outside of eBay itself that follow YOUR brand takes on a whole new meaning.

Throw in a line to the effect of "Fast and Free delivery on all items, FREE 30 day no Hassle Returns, and 100% Customer Satisfaction" and all of the sudden you have a pretty solid USP.

Hope that helps! and as always questions and comments if you have them and I will see you here tomorrow!

Ralli Roots $100.00 Challenge

Kinda cool to watch... I know for me personally living in BFE these finds would not happen in a year let alone all in 1 day.

One not about Goodwill, spent a few hours there earlier today. When you go to pay they offer a rewards card. After 50 points you get a discount. Anyone else have this ?

Day 7 Update

No change today in terms of sales. "The Girls" talked me out of my F350 and 22 foot box trailer and drove off to Philadelphia to go buy "something" so me and "the programming boys" were left shipping today. Kinda went over like a ton of bricks stacked reverse pyramid inside a glass house. But we got through it.

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95

So after the first 7 days we spent $40.03. and after all fees, postage, packing material we have sold $78.14 with a total NET NET of $38.11. just so the number is here as a point of contrast the total in fees and postage and all of that is $36.61.

Im gonna skip the added content tonight but will be back at it tomorrow.

But questions and comments as always are welcome! Thanks

Which eBay listing Duration Should You Select?

So you have 6 choices:

• 3 Day
• 5 day
• 7 Day
• 10 Day
• 30 day
• Good 'til Cancelled

Would kind of make sense to select "Good 'til cancelled" then you wouldn't have to worry about relisting and all that.. but is that really the best option? I am going to suggest, No it is not the best option.

If you have been reading through this thread at all you keep reading how I mention eBay SEO aside from the Title is dynamic in a way. This is the gate way to the start of that discussion.

So you go through the process of creating a new listing.. you've got a kiler title and great photos, pricing is right, and a good description.. and then you click "List Item" That very click begins a 4 to 24 hour boost in your products search rank within the listings of eBay - the length of the boost depends on the Category you are listing in. In almost every category you can go out and search for your item and find your listing at least somewhere on page one of the listings with the high lighted "NEW LISTING" tag.

So what does that have to do with Listing length? well if you could by a press of a button create a ranking boost for your item every 3, 5, 7, or 10 days vs once every 30 days.. wouldn't that kinda make sense?

But before you get all trigger happy and go out and start posting 3 day item listings... there is a catch of sorts... and that's called "Monthly Limits" More specifically you have limits on the number of listings you can create in a month.. just beginning that number I believe is 100. So if you have 1 item you list over and over on 3 day listings.. in a months time that would mean you would use 10 of your allocated 100 monthly listing to list that single item every 3 days.

So obviously that may not be the best idea. So the overall happy medium selection would then be the 10 day listing. My general rule of thumb is I run through the 10 days 2x and if the item is still not sold then convert it over to a 30 day listing.

So an important little tid bit here.. when the listing ends you open it up to list it again you have 2 options "Sell Similar" and "Relist" Sell Similar is what you want to select IF you want the SEO effect. By using Sell Similar you are creating a NEW Product listing ID, basically a NEW product. IF you select Sell Similar, you WILL NOT get the SEO advantage.

However, like with all things in life there are exceptions to what you would do and not do. I personally will RELIST an item if it has WATCHERS. When you relist the item, you carry over the watchers.. if you Sell Similar, you will lose them. There comes a point, depending on how many items you have listed that even the 10 day option is not very viable. You kinda by default fall to using the 30 day listing.

I WOULD NOT and DO NOT ever use the Good 'til Cancelled option. It basically automatically does a relist every 30 days and you have no option for a boost. If I am going to "use" one of my allotted monthly listings I would prefer to at the very least get the SEO boost for it.

And not to worry, this is not the only SEO boost trick I have up my sleeve, and again I will get more into this stuff as the month progresses.

Hope you enjoyed this one, and as always if you have any questions or comments Ill be here to answer them!

Thanks for reading!

Day 8 Update

Still a bit wearly to be doing this, but I generally don't sell much on Saturday nights so we will get this one in the books. Today was a pretty decent day. Sold 3 items - Kinda excited about that. Son is super excited because that means we have to go out for breakfast and hit the stores, and do some sourcing to hit the $250.00.

I don't really know why he is so excited about breakfast in the morning considering it is a Sunday morning tradition we have had since he was like 5. AND like every other 250+ Sundays before he will order pancakes! hahaha

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $3.09 = $5.65
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95 - $34.95 - $5.59 - .00 - $6.95 = $22.41 ( Item shipped using flat rate priority )

Things might be looking up for the Coffee Mug.. it got some traffic across it today. The video games are really interesting to watch. The most expensive one by far gets more traffic across it than the others, but has yet to sell ( I am starting to think I may lower the price to get it to move ) and the one with the least amount of visits, but had the most watchers sold today.

So our total profit after today is $104.09 minus the $40.03 = $64.06 With another $100+ in product to sell. If we were to look at cost of goods vs profit it would be at this point 25.11 is the cost, and 64.06 is profit putting us at 2.5x of investment. I was shooting for 3x but that's not to bad - and if we can get the boots and Mug in there.. that I think throws us right at the 3x mark.

So the way my brain works... If we can carry on with 3x.. at the end of the month I would reinvest All that there is and go another month, and at some point well within 3 months, we could turn the $40.03 seed into $2000.00 And mathematically speaking over the course of a year this could turn into 6 digits.

I am thinking my next run at this will be running an eBay business from 10 to midnight and at the end of the year cashing out at $100,000.00 That's LIFE CHANGING money. And the more I play with this project the more I see that is entirely possible.

BUT we will get through this month first! hahaha

thanks for following along!

Day 9 Update

just a quick update here. Sold 1 video game. Didn't really expect that to be honest 3 day weekends Sunday tends to be a bit rough.. and Monday becomes the better day. BUT we shall see.

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.70 = $6.04
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $3.09 = $5.65
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $14.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95 - $34.95 - $5.59 - .00 - $6.95 = $22.41

Today took a bit of a turn which I will get into...

Me and the boy went for breakfast this morning... he had PANCAKES, and we were both pumped to get shopping. I was planning on maybe hitting a few stores, we only went to Goodwill. We SCORED 10 pieces for just under $30. 2 Donald Trump dress shirts for .99 each. An Affliction T-shirt some super nice Hilfiger dress shirts, and a pair of Harley button down short sleeve shirts.

We stopped and grabbed a shake to celebrate and did the math.. we had $214.00 dollars worth of stuff, $32 in fees and just under $40 in shipping and $3.50 for the packaging material. Minus the $30 we were looking at $100 in profit! life was good! THEN we got home...

Son is all excited, we head into the shop, he wants mommy to look at the stuff.. he lays it all out.. he is telling her how much each piece cost, how much it was gong to cost to ship and how much profit... right then I was a pretty proud dad. And THEN she says... Savidge4? can I talk to you in the office? My heart sank hahaha

My son then says if daddy is in trouble.. we both are, you can talk to him out here ( a glimmer of a proud dad moment again ) And then it began.. " with this stuff you bought.. are you being true to yourself? " " Look at the pair of you " she says " Savidge5 do you wear anything other than Nike or Puma or gaming shirts?" "No Mommy" he says. "And YOU savidge4, You wear work pants, a red t-shirt, boots, and a work shirt every day of the week." "is there any Nike, or Puma or gamer stuff here? Is there any manly man work gear here? " both of us with our head down said "no ma'am" ( In unison I might add )

She goes on to explain, Yes we did a good job shopping for profit.. but its not about the money, its about buying and selling in what you believe in. The last haul she further explains.. there were stories of connection.. I bought this because mommy would like it... you bought video games.. you bought a frosted flakes jacket, not because of the name on it, but because you thought it was cool.. and this stuff? you bought it because you were thinking of the money.

So mommy is going to list the shopping Haul from today and we have to go out and try again. So hopefully tomorrow we will go out and do just that.. find things that we have an interest in, and have some knowledge in - And be true to ourselves.

So a step further and me and the boy slink off to the house and sit down and discuss what just happened.. We did the high five thing for the buys we made and talked about personal brand and all that good stuff. We have adjusted our game plan.. we have a good idea what we are looking for, and we will see what happens.

A couple hours later my son comes to me and asks if he can show me a video.. and I am thinking I have to endure another gaming video and he shows me:


He then shows me a few more videos by Cityline... he says "Dad, you like to do this stuff.. and I like to help you do this stuff.. maybe we should think about doing this kind of stuff?" ( had another proud dad moment ) and was like heck yeah!!!

Looking at the videos.. I start to wonder.. I have a room specifically for Vinyl lettering and decals and the like.. I have more large format printers than should be allowed. I have Graphic artist and College interns at my disposal - and we don't sell any of this on ebay.. or online for that matter... ( I have in the past.. but not for a while now ) and honestly.. I enjoy that stuff

So that leads me to a guy with a pretty decent name.. Paul Savage. Not quite "Savidge".. but pretty beast on its own. I think of all the Amazon FBA videos I have watched, this guy is the most straight forward... and has an interesting view on things. He did a series on differentiating product:


The truth is... minus having this made in China.. YES there is without question room in that market space for a $30.00 QUALITY version of a Birthday Board. If you watch the video and remove "Amazon" from it and take the same information on listing improvements, photo improvements, and product improvements - and apply those directly to your eBay business... Its pretty solid.

So a few months ago... My wife and I sat down and discussed opening up our 4th eBay store.. something that we could place brand on, and develop brand over time. The issue we were / are having was what image we wanted to promote with out brand..

To be honest we were struggling with this to the point I have considered bringing in a " Stylist " to help us figure out what was available locally that could be put together in a way that we would feel good about, and have value out in the market space. BUT it really wasn't feeling right.

All things happen for a reason.. and today was that THING that probably put us on the right track.. Should be real interesting to see what we come home with tomorrow!

Thanks for reading! and as always questions and comments PLEASE!

Day 10 Update

Sold the Boots today Kind of exciting.. left with 2 games and a Mug at this point.

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items )
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.70 = $6.04
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $3.09 = $5.65
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $13.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95 - $59.95 - $9.59 - 0.00 - $9.20 = $41.16
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95 - $34.95 - $5.59 - .00 - $6.95 = $22.41

this puts us at $160.41 and then take out the total first investment, leaves us with $120.38

The teachers in West Virginia are officially on strike in the morning and my day job is getting slammed with RUSH orders for Banners and signs etc so no added content tonight.

Little Paul and I did go shopping today. The wife will list the items for me tomorrow... A couple of DVD players That rugby shirt, and a couple of other things. I believe selling through the next lot of things will hit the target. ( crossing fingers )

Ill see you guys tomorrow!

Oooo what a day.. got up at 6am yesterday morning.. and I might get some sleep tomorrow night - THANK GOD for COFFEE!!!

Sold a bunch of stuff today.. not any of the 3 remaining items from lot A tho. The "Expensive" game has hit 100 views tho

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

The List ( 13 items ) LOT A
1 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.70 = $6.04
2 PSP game $2.24 - $17.95
3 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.00 - $1.91 - .35 - $3.09 = $5.65
4 PSP game $2.24 - $6.95
5 PSP game $2.24 - $14.95 - $14.95 - 2.39 - .35 - 3.09 = 9.12
6 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
7 PSP game $2.24 - $11.95 - $11.95 - $1.91 - .35 - $2.68 = $7.01
8 Bible $.96 - $27.95 - $27.95 - $4.47 - .60 - $4.31 = $18.57
9 Coffee Mug $.74 - $13.95
10 Tommy Hilfiger Womens Boots $7.49 - $59.95 - $59.95 - $9.59 - 0.00 - $9.20 = $41.16
11 Harley Shirt $3.96 - $39.95 - $39.95 $6.39 - .35 - 3.09 = $30.12
12 womens Harley blouse $5.24 - $19.95 - $19.95 - 3.19 - .35 - $3.09 = $13.32
13 womens North Face Fleece $5.99 - $34.95 - $34.95 - $5.59 - .00 - $6.95 = $22.41

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

1 Hot Dots Pen $2.00 - $10.95
2 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
3 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
4 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
5 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
6 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
7 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
8 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
9 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
10 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
11 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
12 Cantebury USA Rugby Jersey $7.00 - $34.95
12 Star Wars Han Solo Hat $3.00 - $49.99
13 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $24.95
14 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $27.95
15 Philips DVD player $5.00 - $29.95

So a total of $42 spent with a projected Gross of $294.24 So as long as there is like $150 in profit here we should hit our target.

So that's what we have added... AND here is what we sold today!

Item name Cost - Asking - Sold - Fees - Packing - Postage = Profit
Anything in Bold Italic will be something that has been adjusted from the previous day

1 Hot Dots Pen $2.00 - $10.95 - $0.00 Threw this in as a bonus for the large order
2 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
3 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
4 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
5 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
6 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
7 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
8 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.00 - $0.00 - $10.04
9 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95 - $1.91 - $0.65 - $5.62 - $3.77
10 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
11 Hot Dots Cards Pack $1.50 - $11.95
12 Cantebury USA Rugby Jersey $7.00 - $34.95
12 Star Wars Han Solo Hat $3.00 - $49.99
13 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $24.95
14 Sony DVD player $5.00 - $27.95
15 Philips DVD player $5.00 - $29.95

In total the order was for 20 packs - We separated out the packs that were bought for this project and figured postage for those ( in case you are wondering with Hot Dot cards we use Media Mail. )

So in this we lost a sale of an item - the hot dots pen so we lost $8.95 in potential Gross. Because all of these went out in 1 order.. we only had the expense of one box, and the combined shipping vs single single single is severely cheaper as in it cost as much to ship all of that as it would cost to ship 2 singles.

So as it stands with Lot A we are at $120.38 NET NET and Lot B 1 day in we are at a NET NET of $61.55 For a total NET NET of $181.93

The race for $250 is ON!!

Great Work Hope you will reach $250 soon.

Day 11 Update

Nothing sold.. some new items were bought.. im so tired I cant see straight.. we will be back at it tomorrow night!

thanks all for reading along.. greatly appreciated!

Sounds like a great idea. I'm wondering how you pick what you want to sell. Seems like it should be things that people want to buy. Sort of like looking up best sellers o n Amazon and then selling that kind of stuff.
Good luck!

Day 12 Update

Didn't sell any of the listed items. I DID sell the iPhone.. turned out to be better than I thought.. Paid $100.00 for the phone.. unlocked it this morning to find out it was an iPhone XS Max and listed it for $800. It was a bit underpriced ( intentionally ) and it sold in less than 4 hours. So $100 cost - $800 listed - $800 sold - $128 fees $21.09 shipping and insurance with Signature. $650.91 net $550.91 NET NET

I buy about a phone a week sometimes more from Craigslist or facebook. For the average person you want to ensure you can actually get into the phone and ensure the icloud features are turned off before you buy ( back up, lost phone etc ).

if you are new at this ( flipping phones ) make sure your buy price is less than what you can sell a phone for that is "IC Locked". I thought I was buying a iPhone 8+ and they generally sell for $200 IC Locked. Something like the X's can get $400 to $700 IC Locked.

I only deal with iPhones myself...

The only thing I am seeing wrong with your posts and maybe helping some newbies out on struggle street looking for a start is.

It involves WORK. that tends to stop most right there.

Now we are back to working hard, I will share 2 things that I swung in this game that may or may not apply here.

1. was to develop a wish list of sorts (as I mainly dealt in collectibles which was open to repeat customers), this was easy to do by asking after a sale something like "Joe if I was to come across more blue widgets, would you like me to contact you before I place them up for sale?"

I just complied this information in excel, and over time developed a huge list of people wanting stuff, this then came our first port of call with new items, to check it off from our wishlist. This way time was saved on setting up a complete listing as a few quick photos sent of with a quick message was all that was needed and more often than not it resulted in quicker turn around times on products.

And for the fast and furious out there, this is not a fast thing to do, it takes time and some work to slowly build up a big list.

Second to this was knowing what was on your list, helped in making buying decissions as you often seen things that you knew customers would buy.

2. And this came out of more accident than discovery / thought, was people seeing that you were good at selling online would ask, hey can you sell this for me, at first I did it as a kind gesture, then I started charging but no where near enough, and to end up with the final option which worked well was to charge a flat 50% fee on the sale price of what ever I sold.

If people did not like the fee, all good, go somewhere else because anything less is wasting my time.

This in a way is no money down and money coming back into your pocket. Currently I am completeing one job (my last Job) where my contract will see me probably if I am lucky to finish selling everything before this coming Christmas, it is that big of a deal.

I made this deal just before I decided to out the game, so I must complete it as I gave my word to the client.

but that side gig alone made a lot of extra $ and still keeps rolling in :-) and as you can see can become large scale. The funny thing here is I never chased this work in any way, but it always came to me.

Anyway as mentioned it some cases these options could be added in, and work others maybe not.

Thanks, I will wait for your post. This is very interesting to me

Best Of Luck Man

Payments as a new seller are held for 21 days UNLESS when you send an item the buyer leaves feedback OR if you send the item trackable and that item shows as delivered + 3 days then email paypal and they will release the funds sooner. Payment holds occur because: You have been selling on eBay for less than 90 days.

Keep us updated, please!

Welcome to the Warrior Forum Erin. Great to see you stop in here and share some advice. savidge4 In one of the earlier posts. You mention some times you pick a product that can be a loss. After making a mistake on a product that does not sell. "Reference to one of the games" How do you come up with a price to keep your loss to a minimum ?

Wow this was the longest thread which I saw here so far

Trying to convince my son to do this, genius.

I was just thinking out loud and wondered how many lives would be changed for the better if you took this into schools and taught 10 year old kids with say a 10 week course, it would be 10 X better than some history lesson. 10 X @ 10.

I remember seeing a young kid a while back online building his brand teaching / mentoring and relating to other kids ? maybe a possible direction as well. mind wanders and ponders at night. :-)

cool stuff your doing. Back to work