Anyone make a living off Ebay?

[Clowd]

Been looking into this lately, does anyone here do this? I did it a little bit in the summer, made $800 dollars in 3 days... might start doing it a lot more if it can be that profitable all the time. Anyone have any suggestions?

[juan ruiz]

I have never done it but within weeks I will start selling my line of products, so will see what happens.

[speeder]

Just curious, but what did you sell when you made the quick $800 ?

[Clowd]

Some extra drums I never used... DW Collectors series, 3 of them.

[M.D. Holloway]

Clowd: Do you Know John Van Ness? He is the NE rep for DW (or he used to be).

I think you can clean up as well doing a yard sale every year. You get rid of all the small junk. We do it and make from $300 to $600 easy with only 4 hours sitting around BS'n. One year we made over $2500! - $2000 was an old Grand Am we sold during the yard sale.

Go get some soda and dogs from Sams Club. While your out there - have the grill going, charge 50 censt a can and $1 a dog - the profit margins are great. Very easy way to make $25 to $50 profit in no time just on that. The guys eat while momma picks through your junk.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

The fees are too high to make any real money off Ebay anymore. . .

[jfw834]

i sold audio equipment on ebay for a while when i worked for a HiFi store in chicago....i would get all this old vintage equipment for free or close to nothing when it was traded in cause the manager of our store was so rich he didn't care. i would toy with them for a while and then sell them for $100s on ebay. pretty fun.....i even used the stores fedex account to ship the stuff out!

other than that i have sold random stuff....mostly cell phones and old records. never made to much money but i know that if you can corner a market by getting some very popular product at a low cost, ebay could definately double your paycheck each month with a little work....

[tabs]

I sold quiet abit of art through eBay....it's not hard to do 8k to 10k a month...provided you have the merch.....therein lies the problem where to find enough to sell....

I was at the Fed Ex counter, and this woman starts talking to me...she could tell I was selling on the Bay by the wide variety of boxes I was shipping...she said she was making $500 a week without a problem by selling used womens clothing... designer purses, shoes, dresses etc. She found her merch at yard sales and thrift stores. Her friend she said was making 8K a month but ate and slept eBay.

You would really be surprised who sells art on the bay...one guy I know of owns office buildings down in Irvine, CA collects art and has his secratary do the eBay stuff...his office and lobby has dozens of painting worth 1000's each in it, but he keeps the really good stuff at home in New Port Beach.

Let me put it to you this way....there is more money left lieing around in Art than any other collectable....for instance if you have a gun, it has the manufacturers mark, model number, caliber and serial number on it...so you know exactly what it is and can go to a variety of Pricing books to find it's value....NOt so with Art...many times the person thinks its ugly and has no value, can't read the signature, it's dirty or even isn't signed...and thats where you come in....In 2002 a guy bought a small painting that was so dirty that yu could barely tell what it was for $10 at a yard sale in San Gaberial, CA, he took it home and looked at the signature with a magnifying glass, it turned out to be a Granville Redmond painting of Catalina Island that he sold through Morans Auctions for $8900. I know the story is true since Iwas shown the painting before it was cleaned at Morans...

[Dantilla]

The key is a niche you know. I would loose my shirt with art, because I know nothing. A friend knows vintage electronics, and does quite well digging through pawn shops and garage sales and re-selling on eBay.

I've purchased cars at auctions before, and have done pretty good, but I got a call from a guy a while ago asking why he couldn't sell the cars he bought at a simular auction. Simple. He paid too much for undesirable cars. He thought he would make money in a market he knows nothing about, and got stung.

[juan ruiz]

I recently was told the same about e-bays fees, so I wonder if theres any other places like e-bay , that could be more atractive ?

[on-ramp]

i'm not making a living, i do it on the side (for now) but...
your profit margins need to be a lot greater than 10% to make any real money on a consistent basis.

The first 10% of the sale goes to fees ( listing/final value/paypal, plus fees on items that dont sell).

everything after the first 10% is yours to keep, but don't forget that this figure is taxed.

the magic is always in the numbers and be sure not to forget any.

[Mike(dat's me)]

I too believe there is a ton of money to made off E-bay. The question is what to sell...

Something you can get in large quanity and sell at a decent profit. I just don't know. I am always on the lookout though.

[RickM]

Originally posted by juan ruiz
I recently was told the same about e-bays fees, so I wonder if theres any other places like e-bay , that could be more atractive ?

Nope.

While there are other good and less expensive auction sites they simply don't attract a significant audience. Yahoo being the second largest but about as popular a a ghost town. It's not even an option on their front page any longer.

I also have done pretty well on EBAY. You can't beat the exposure. It's still a good deal in my opinion.

My question is: When will the IRS start tracking accounts there?

[juan ruiz]

Thanks for the advice, I will give it a try and see how we do.

[JavaBrewer]

Not an auction site but I have sold a ton of stuff on Craigs List. The site is totally free, you can attach pictures, and gets alot of traffic. Sold our LR Discovery there, furniture, bicycles, dog house, etc... Stuff moves fast there.

[asphaltgambler]

I dunno................I always buy more than sell!!

[tabs]

I don't collect spoons to make money, I do it for the chase of the item I'm looking for...however with what I collect one has to be cognizant of the monies involved. From time to time the attic has to be weeded out, to make room for the new stuff that one is aqquiring....

Ebay is only one tool for selling your items, I find it to be the best way an indivdual collector can dispose of stuff and get the best return. However if you really have some High End stuff ebay is not the best way to dispose of it...The big auction houses are the ticket..they attract the clientel who are willing to pop the big bux. I don't know anyone who is going to spend 50K up on something without looking it over in person...

For guns it is the Gun List or Guns America web site that seem to work well....

[azasadny]

Clowd,
That's funny! I buy all of my drums on eBay, but I'm a "vintage Slingerland" guy!

[M.D. Holloway]

When I was in Jr High, a neighbor was getting rid of a brand new 5pc Ludwig set - circa 1969 - still had plastic wrap around it. The heads were never put on and it was stored in a guest room. The set was mint. She wanted to sell to us for $100. I said I really didn't want a pink sparkle drum set, my Dad understood and I got a black Tama instead. The other set was actually champagne sparkle and to this day I recognize the error in my judgrment.

One of many that got away!

[KevinP73]

I'm not sure I'd agree with many of the opinions here. My 14yo daughter buys/sells teddy bears and dolls on e-bay and a couple other auction sites. she also operates her own Yahoo store. She operates from home, spends about 2hrs a day and makes more than her mother who works full time at a bank. I've seen plenty of people who make a good living off of e-bay. One guy who lives very close to the shop makes a living selling other peoples stuff on e-bay. And on Sepulveda near Burbank there is an outfit that does the same thing, and they're big. When I have a little extra cash I go to auctions at various public storage places here in the valley. I've never spent more than $50.00 on a "locker", I'll drop everything off to the guy who sells it for me and I go back to working my full time job.
You can make it work if you know how to work it.
JMHO