eBay Seller Receives Heartfelt Letter from Customer After Husband Dies

eBay sellers often endure undeserved complaining and buyer's remorse issues from customers - hey, it is part of the job. But when someone is touched by the small things we do, it makes our efforts worth the trouble. An eBay seller posted this heartfelt letter yesterday on Facebook. Keep going eBay sellers, you don't know how many customers you have out there like this one.

eBay Seller Creates Health and Wealth Working at Home

Deborah, a member of my Facebook group, came up with this brilliant idea to "rake in some dough while losing some dough." As you can see, she has created a workstation on top of her treadmill. She can do research on the web, list items, or answer emails while getting her daily workout. Deborah said she made the desk out of 2 yoga blocks, zip ties, and an old shelf.

Deborah, who runs the eBay store Pinching Pesos, says about her set up, "I only go 1.8-2 mph. Your wrists are stable on the board. You would be surprised by how simple it is and how natural it becomes to type. You have the same stability as if you had your hands on the bars." The day she posted this pic on the group, she got in 10 new listings and 4 miles and enjoyed working on her "health and wealth" at the same time.

What an ingenious set up, Deborah! And what a clever way to multi-task, doing two productive things at once!

Make Money Selling Children's Winter Clothing

The time is now! If you have these items, get them listed. If you don't have them, put them on your radar as a "be on the lookout" item at garage sales, thrift stores, and consignment sales. Although it is still warm in many parts of the country, these children's winter items are beginning to sell quickly as those in colder climates are preparing for winter.

Here are some recently sold listings for snow suits. Brands to look for here include Columbia, The North Face, LL Bean, Land's End, Gap, and Patagonia. We usually find these for between $3-$5 at thrift stores and garage sales. Look at the selling prices - great profit margins!

Same goes for snow boots. Don't get stuck in your own head - just because it isn't cold enough to wear them where YOU are, doesn't mean nobody needs them now. (And people do buy ahead, knowing that winter is coming.) Brands to look for here include Uggs, Sorel, North Face, Keen, Bogs,  Merrell, LL Bean, and Baffin. Children's shoes at our Goodwill cost $3, boots included.

There is plenty of money to be made selling children's winter clothing year round. Learn more about selling in this category by taking our course, "Selling Children's Clothing on eBay."  We will teach you about the brands to look for, selling lots vs individual pieces, new vs used, how to get deeper discounts buying children's clothing for resale, and selling on consignment. Classes for September are on Monday 9/16 at 11 AM, and Sunday 9/29 at 6 PM. A great class for moms and dads who have a steady supply of outgrown children's clothing to sell. See the current class schedule here.
Related Articles:

eBay Sellers - If You Have It - List It!

Don't Call That Baby Bodysuit a Onesie

Podcast with Networker for Business Women

I am thrilled and honored to be featured on the site, Networker for Business Women, as a guest on a podcast about online selling. The gracious hostess, Lourdes Wellhaven, runs the site and offers a variety of resources for the benefit of business women. The podcast is about an hour long and you can either listen or download it here. 

The podcast can also be found on iTunes here.

Be sure to check out the rest of the site for many more podcasts and other useful resources.

Related articles:

Podcasts - Online Selling with Suzanne Wells

Don't Throw that Trash Away - Sell it on eBay

Learn to Sell Groceries on Amazon

Make Money Selling Pre-Owned Plush on eBay

I've been selling on eBay since 2003, but only started dabbling in selling pre-owned plush (stuffed animals) last year. Many people I talk to about "What to sell on eBay" are surprised to learn how well pre-owned plush sells. Collectors are often looking for an addition or replacement for their collection. A child may lose or destroy his favorite plush and mom, instead of going insane, buys him a replacement - sometimes the toy isn't made anymore and a used version is all that's available. Hard to find plush make great romantic gifts. (I've seen feedback comments referring to this.)

Plush is often very inexpensive to purchase at garage sales and thrift stores. We find plush prices starting at 10 cents at garage sales, and our Goodwill sells most plush for $1 - over-sized for around $3. Plush is very easy to ship - it isn't breakable or fragile. The only downside to selling plush is storage - the over-sized pieces can take up a lot of room. To wash used plush, just put it in a pillow case and wash it in the washing machine. Let it air dry on a towel. It will look (and smell) as good as new!

A recent search on eBay shows over 15,000 pre-owned plush items sold in the last 30 days in the categories of toys, collectibles, and dolls / bears. I like to help sellers learn what to look for when they are sourcing for eBay and Amazon. I generally focus on items that are actually "findable" - meaning things you are likely to see over and over again, not so much those once-in-a-lifetime finds that sell for hundreds of dollars. (I guess I take a practical approach - repetition of an item selling at a moderate price is more likely to happen than a rare score that sells for hundreds.)

Here are some examples of items you might find at thrift stores or garage sales, that you can flip for good money on eBay. Notice all of these are used and nothing too extravagant or rare.

Large Barney plush sold for $60

Target brand horse sold for $49.99

 And this lobster for $49.99. 

You wouldn't think a plush lobster would be a cute and cuddly toy, but somebody liked this enough to pay almost $50 for it.

Plush to look for:

African animals (elephants, lions, giraffes)

Any character in a current movie or recently released DVD

Barney

Beatrix Potter characters

Breed specific dogs and cats

Care Bears

Disney

Dr. Seuss

Elmo

Frogs (don't ask me why, but frogs sell!)

Hello Kitty

Holiday themed plush (Santa, elves, reindeer, snowmen)

Horses

Peanuts

Sesame Street

Serta Sheep (promo items)

Scooby-Doo

Superheroes

Teddy Bears

Always look up the items on your mobile phone before making a purchasing decision, if at all possible! Plush is a huge category and we really can't generalize and say something will definitely sell. Here is a video about how to research items on the eBay Mobile app.


Related articles:

Top 5 Thrifting Tips


Top 10 Women's Clothing Brands to Sell on eBay 

iPhone Scam on eBay - Sellers Beware!

This post is intended for newer sellers on eBay. Be careful selling a used iPhone if you don't have much experience as a seller. You are a target for scams! Here is how one of the scams goes:

Unscrupulous buyers (aka, crooks), scope out iPhones and other expensive electronics to purchase. They specifically look for sellers with low feedback who look inexperienced. Their profiles also look new - probably because they open new accounts intentionally to run scams. The buyer will purchase the phone from you. Then, after receiving it, they will either say it doesn't work properly, or it isn't as described in the listing, and want to return it for a refund.

The buyer will arrange to ship the item back to you. When you receive it back, it won't be the same phone you shipped to them. They will have either switched it out with another broken or unusable phone, or taken specific parts out of it so that it doesn't work. So you will have refunded the money to the buyer, and end up with a phone that is worthless.

The "guts" of an iPhone (and other smartphones) can be sold for cash at pawn shops. Also, scammers are gluing together parts of iPhones and selling them as new on the streets, and using them to trade for drugs or prostitution. (See this article, "Scammers Gluing Together Frankenstein iPhones Out of Old Broken Parts.) These scammers are using eBay to harvest the parts for their Frankenstein phones.

So, if you have an iPhone or smartphone to sell, use Amazon's Trade-In Program. The money is guaranteed, you won't have to worry about customer returns, you receive Amazon gift card credit for the phone, and the whole process takes about a week.

Learn more about selling on eBay by taking one of my online courses. The school has just launched, but we have many more classes under development, including eBay for Beginners. Check out the course catalog here, and sign up for my newsletter here to stay informed about new classes and trainings.

Be safe online!