How many of you have actually sold

[haws bah gawd 0]

Top-Loading NES is where the $$$ is on ebay. People will bid ridiculous amounts for one of those. I've been with ebay since 1999. I've had my share of bad customers/sellers. You just have to watch out when leaving feedback because you will more often than not, get a "revenge" feedback if you negative someone.

[Matt Young 0]

I've always wondered, what's the best strategy for making a decent profit on eBay, as in consistently, with various items? Vague question, I know, and there may be no answer, but I could use the extra cash when I move back out of my parents' place soon.

[haws bah gawd 0]

My way to profit on ebay is to hit up the flea markets, and mom-n-pop discountshops in the area. You never know what kind of treasures you could find for next to nothing and make a significant profit from. Here are some examples of my finds (flea markets and people that dont know the value of their items are a godsend):

 

Suikoden (100% complete mint condition) - $5.00 - highly soughtafter RPG for PSone

 

Suikoden II (100% complete MINT condition) - $5.00, bought from same seller - outrageously in-demand RPG for the PSone. Sold for $150.

 

Top-Loading NES - $50, sold for $175

 

Pretender Shell for Transformers G1 Bludgeon - $.50 sold for $20

 

Just keep digging around your local discount shops and see what you can find.

[Damaramu 0]

Yeah I still like the idea of building a reputation and then just selling the random crap.

Because after you get popular people will buy anything from you. Ever heard of woohoomysteryman? He sold a gum wrapper on EBay to prove he could sell anything. He has a fanbase.

 

So my friend has a gigantic rating and very positive feedback. We're going to start small and then things are going to get crazy.

Some ideas we have(although i don't know if i should say):

 

Mystery box hit by cosmic rays. We're going to come up with a whole backstory about how this box was hit by cosmic rays and now it has aliens inside and a free prize. We're going to put some gift in it and include some little fake alien toys. We'll make it clear that people are just bidding on the box(which you have to do on the mystery auctions) and see what happens. And then eventually we'll go back to that same auction after we've developed a reputation.

 

The Lich's cloak: we're just going to sell a cloak. We're going to tell everyone that we defeated the evil lich king who wore it and we think it's cursed. We'll include photoshopped pics of us defeating the Lich King.

 

We have all these ideas and all you need to do is present it right and have a reputation as someone that does this kind of thing and people will buy it! Presentation is what I learned is best on EBay.

I mean some guy was able to sell fucking Waffles that said ROFL on them because he concocted some story about them being sent by aliens to kill him and he even added pics of Builder Bob fighting them off. Dude made like 800 dollars.

[Mik 0]

Sounds like Damaramu's shooting for this webpage...

 

www.bizarrebids.com

 

Worth checking out for everyone - there's some hilarious shit on there.

[Damaramu 0]

The thing is though Mik....people buy that shit!

My question though is....who has enough money to spend 800 bucks on waffles?

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Those types of auctions are more likely to attract potential non-paying bidders, though. This isn't eBay circa 2000, where people would almost always pay for crap like this. Now, a lot of people see joke auctions like this and place bids, with no itentions to pay.

 

As a seller of almost four years, I'll say this: it's still possible to make a nice sum of money with the right items. But it's a lot harder to do than before. With all of the publicity eBay has gotten over the past couple of years, the market for just about everything has become oversaturated. Everyone on there seems to have dreams of making big bucks on crap, which has left specific areas of eBay packed the brim with common items at terrible prices.

 

Probably the worst thing is that with this flood of new sellers, there are more of the same in the way of items than ever before. With so many people offering the same thing (think collectibles here), values of said item are dropping off because everyone's trying to compete with everyone else for the best price. The bidders wind up winning that one, but the sellers suffer. It's easy to find a bargain on most collectibles now, but it's hell to find something that isn't incredibly rare and turn a nice profit like it used to be.

[Damaramu 0]

So will I make any money off of some of these auctions? Do you think I'll have a lot of fake bidders? Can they do that or will EBay nab them for that?

[Ced 0]

Well, I've gone 72 hours without a response from my latest auction and the guy's got 4 more days before I file an Unpaid Item dispute and start prepping the top bidders for a potential Second Chance offer.

 

It's a shame, really. I've been selling stuff on eBay for years now and haven't come across one of the douchebags that ruins it for everyone until now.

[spman 0]

Here's a tip that is definitly true. If you're selling something that you know has value to someone somewhere, like say over 30 dollars, start the bidding at 0.99, it will go MUCH higher because people will actually bid on your stuff and get into a bidding war instead of just randomly bidding on an auction at the last minute because it was started at 99.99 and no one was interested.

[CanadianChris 0]

The only problem with that is, if it only goes for 5 bucks or so, you have to sell it. It's a risk you have to be willing to take.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

And believe me, these days, nothing's a sure thing. I've had that same mindset about items that should've gone for a lot and had it backfire. Although Star Trek items aren't hot, I remember having around 30 of the Next Generation ones from Playmates in the package. I auctioned them off in two lots, starting both of them at $9.99. And guess what? They sold for $9.99. Quite the kick in the ass.

[spman 0]

The only problem with that is, if it only goes for 5 bucks or so, you have to sell it. It's a risk you have to be willing to take.

 

 

Well yeah, obviously, but I'm talking about stuff that you know for a fact is definitly worth money, like orginal Star Wars Action Figures, or hard to find Video Games.

[Bruiser Chong 0]

Star Wars isn't hot. There's this misconception that any vintage SW toys = cash. Not the case at all. Only the real rare ones fetch anything. You'd be lucky to turn a five spot on most single figures.