Two months into the new year and reselling is going alright for the most part. A lot has changed since I stopped doing this in early 2000. For one thing, eBay was an auction site and not trying to compete with Amazon and Walmart. At least that's the vibe I'm getting.
I've been focusing mainly on lower-end items that I think will be a quick ship and fast flip. Stuff like books, t-shirts, and smaller easy-to-ship items. I'm not sure if these markets are currently flooded, but I'm just not getting the views I used to get. Back in the day, you could sell just about anything and get views, watchers, and sales.
Not sure if these are saturated markets, there's more competition with other sites, or eBay just doesn't have the traffic it once did. The above image are items that were listed for 3 days with zero views.
Here's a good example of old eBay traffic. I was in the dollar store in early 2000 shopping with a friend. I saw these little wooden gift boxes, and some polished rocks in a bag next to it.I bought the box and the rocks then bet my friend $10 that I'd sell a box of rocks on eBay. My friend was also a reseller and took the bet. I sold a two-dollar box of rocks for $10 in less than 3 days. If you're getting views, you can pretty much sell anything. That was eBay in early 2000. You could literally sell close to anything and sell it quickly!
Not really a positive but I was listening to other resellers on a podcast and most people said this was normal. Apparently, traffic comes and goes in spurts along with sales. I've had similar experiences. Nothing, no sales for a week, then the following week, things sell.
BOLO - Dungeons and Dragons Books
The good news is that I've been finding gold in just about every lot of items I buy. Gold is those cheap items you resell for a decent profit. For instance, I found an Advanced Dungeon and Dragons first edition book that was in pretty rough shape. I bought the book for under $3 and sold it for $40.
Now on the downside of that, close to half the money goes to shipping and fees. Check out item 58 in the picture. I paid $2.98 for the item, sold it for $40, paid ebay $6.55 in fees and it costed me $5 to ship it. I'll take the $25 profit, but that's a lot of costs on a $3 item.
I've even taken a couple losses after shipping and eBay fees as you can see with item 48. That was an M & M candies blanket. Ended up losing $1.51 after shipping and eBay fees. For this reason, I'm not doing many items with free shipping anymore. I have to figure out a fair shipping price on each item and then price the item accordingly taking into consideration eBay's fees.
With that said, things are going fairly well. It's accomplishing what I want it to accomplish. Just cover a couple bills and keep me from dipping into my trading nut. It is doing that.
I'm going to screw around with eBay for a couple more months. I may also open an eBay store soon and try that. My cousin is a reseller and is doing great with her store. In the next couple months though, I already want to expand into other venues. I'm thinking maybe Poshmark for clothing and Etsy for antiques and vintage finds.
My goal is to turn this into a full-time business to weather the bear markets in crypto and stop spending my trading cash. I've got a long way to go! I've been moving slow though as I learn and I'm planning on listing a lot more when garage sale season arrives and I can source items much cheaper than at the thrift shop.
My goal is to get my 90-Day total up over $3000 by the middle of the year. Then start to expand into some other venues like Etsy and Poshmark. I'd be really happy getting this thing to do $1000 a month. That's the current goal.
I will say this. It's obvious eBay wants to be Amazon and Walmart. I'd really like to start an online Auction Only website similar to what eBay started as. They've forgotten about their small sellers, and I think a competing site that focused on the little guys would be a welcome addition to the auction and reselling space. If anyone wants to collaborate, feel free to comment.
So that's this month's reselling report. Time to up these numbers, and start listing more. I'll keep you all updated as the business progresses, I may have some 3Speaks coming soon too.