Chrisha Playful Plush- eBay Seller Success Story

Angie sent in her success story:

"I have a success story if you'd like. I bought a Walmart plush at a thrift store for $.50 at sold it for almost $30 BIN." Here is Angie's listing:



Angie's price: .50
Selling price: $29.97
Profit before fees: $29.47

Fantastic! Some of those stuffed animals do really well. You can check out Angie's blog at Wylie Mom. She has a great blog about saving money with grocery coupons, sales, and other deals.

Click here for my free list of other thrift store items you can sell on eBay. Want to know about more thrift store finds to sell on eBay? Check out Thrift Store Goldmines, which contains 61 pages of items just like this. You may already have some of these huge money makers in your house, and not even know they are valuable!

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iPhone Terapeak App for eBay Research on the Go

Thanks to John S. for sending in this tip:

"I don't know if you have an iphone or not but if you do or know someone with one, Terapeak has an app for it. They just released it and of course I had to get it. It is free but you do have to have an active Terapeak account. The app is awesome! Very fast even using the edge network. Has all the info you need to make snap decisions out on the hunt. It will search 7,30 or 45 days and give avg price, listings and sell thru % along with listings in descending sold price."

And according to ResearchAdanced.com, on their December 8th post, "Terapeak Marketplace Research, Powered by AERS, today announced the launch of an iPhone application that allows users to conduct eBay market research on the go. Available free as part of all North American Terapeak subscriptions, the application will see users simply key their search term(s) into one screen, and with one click access item-specific data based on 45 days of closed eBay listings."

How cool is this? I remember the days of yesteryear (like 4 years ago), when you had to guess, go with your gut, or just take a risk buying something to resell. Now you can determine on the spot in the store or at the estate sale if the item is going to be a profitable item on eBay. If you have an iPhone, you should definitely take advantage of this! What a huge time saver. Click here to sign up for Terapeak.

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Flipping Listings - Keywords to Search #2

Flipping listings is a great way to make a nice profit with very little work and a small time investment. The most common stumbling block to this process is thinking of words to plug into the misspelling tool. Let me help you out! I have been selling on eBay since 2003 and have sold over 20,000 items, so I can make some great suggestions.

Every week I will be posting 5 brand names, words, or phrases that you can plug into a misspelling tool. You can just copy the list and keep these ideas in a spreadsheet or WORD document.

This week's keywords:

Citizens of Humanity

Estee Lauder

Dansko

Pfaltzgraff

Brighton

If you aren't familiar with these brands or items, take a moment to research them on Google so you will know what you are looking for. To learn how I flip eBay listings, click here for a free 5 minute tutorial.

Happy Selling!

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Ice Breaker Bodyfit Top - eBay Seller Success Story

Paula in Lake Tahoe sent in this success story:

"This brand ICEBREAKER is a really hot seller right now.i bought this shirt for $2 and sold it two weeks later in a fixed priced listing for $39.95. I think anything made of Merino Wool does really well in general."

Here is her listing:


Paula's cost: $2
Sale price: $39.95
Profit before fees: $37.95

Great sale! I have not heard of Ice Breaker Bodyfit - I am guessing this is like Under Armour. Keep your eyes open for this one! For more items like this, check out my free huge list of thrift store items to sell on eBay. And send in your success stories!

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eBay Cross Promotions Box

Are you aware of this setting and its effects on your sales?



You may want to remove the cross-advertising at the bottom of your listings as this area shows links to similar products by other sellers. You can lose the buyer here if they see something the competition is offering that they like better. The cross promotions box has advantages and disadvantages.

If you allow the cross promo box on your listings, buyers may click on it and leave your listing. But your listings will will show up on other sellers’ pages in their cross promo box.

If you don’t allow the cross promo box, traffic won’t leave your page, but your listings won’t show up on other sellers’ pages. So you have to decide if the possible traffic you may receive from other sellers is worth losing potential buyers to them.

This post is brought to you by Garage Sale Tracker - a cool new website that allows sellers to advertise their garage sales, and buyers to find sales in their area.

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Strategy for Marketing eBay Items on Twitter

You have probably seen the share bookmarklet on your eBay items where you can automatically feed the links into Twitter. I don't find that strategy effective. Here is what I do:



Choose a product to promote

Search for the keywords on Twitter

Look for posts about the item you are promoting - how your product can help them

Send the person a message with the @ sign and a link to your item

You will need to shorten the eBay link with TinyUrl

Do this a few times a day to target specific buyers for specific products you sell

Be careful not to spam! Use discretion. For more cool tips like this, check out My Silent Team.

Good luck!

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eBay Listing Types - Which Kind is Best?

I received this question from Billie:

"I need to tap into your expertise. I'm a little confused as to where to list items in my store. Fixed or store inventory? Is it true that items listed as store inventory very rarely come up in the ebay search, is it better to spend the extra money and do the fixed price to get more visability? Your answere would be greatly appreciated."

This is a common question among my coaching clients so I will give you my 2 cents worth, which may differ from other opinions out there.

Auction style listings and fixed price listings get more visibility in searches than store inventory listings. The downside is that they cost more on the front end. When you list an item on auction or fixed price, the fee up front is .55 or more, depending on your starting price and upgrades, and you pay that fee whether or not the item sells. When you list an item in store inventory, the up front cost is .03-.05 depending on asking price.

Here is my strategy. I use store inventory as a "holding tank" for unsold auctions. Let's say I find a great item,like True Religion jeans, to "flip" on eBay. (Click here for a video tutorial on how to flip listings.) I will start off running an auction. If the item doesn't sell on auction, I will move it to store inventory at a fixed price with Best Offer. At least the item is out there and has some visibility until I decide to put it on auction or fixed price again. You can move items around like this through your selling manager very easily.

Some items go directly into my store inventory. Let's say I find 20 of something at Big Lots. I will put one on auction, and the rest as a quantity in store inventory. Within the auction I will say, "Don't want to wait for this auction to end? Buy it now from my store inventory." So you can use your auctions to advertise other things in store inventory.

Running all auctions and fixed price listings gets expensive, especially if your items don't sell. Granted, the final value fee for store inventory items is higher (12% vs 8% for auctions), but you don't lose money on the listing fees.

There are advantages and disadvantages to each listing type. It is a gray area with a lot of variables. You will need to experiment and see what works best for you and find your own comfort zone.

Happy Selling!



Find sloppy listings and resell the items for way more than you paid for them! Click here to see my personal examples.

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Flipping Listings - Keywords to Search

Flipping listings is a great way to make a nice profit with very little work and a small time investment. The most common stumbling block to this process is thinking of words to plug into the misspelling tool. Let me help you out! I have been selling on eBay since 2003 and have sold over 20,000 items, so I can make some great suggestions.

Every week I will be posting 5 brand names, words, or phrases that you can plug into a misspelling tool. You can just copy the list and keep these ideas in a spreadsheet or WORD document.

This week's keywords:

Clinique

Patagonia

Diesel

Façonnable

Armani

If you aren't familiar with these brands or items, take a moment to research them on Google so you will know what you are looking for. To learn how I flip eBay listings, click here for a free 5 minute tutorial.

Happy Selling!

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eBay Buyers and Feedback

Catherine sent in this question:

"Is there a method you have used, or wording you have used, to encourage a buyer to leave feedback? I have several buyers who have never left feedback for me. I don’t want to be annoying or desperate, so any help you can provide with regards to this would be great!"

This is a tricky issue. Research shows that only 40% of buyers on eBay leave feedback. Buyers who are not sellers do not understand the importance of feedback and how sellers need it to build our reputation.

I include a blurb on my automated emails that says, "We hope you are happy with your experience with us. If for some reason you are not, please contact us before leaving feedback and we will work with you to reach an acceptable solution. We appreciate you leaving positive feedback for us."

I have tried sending reminder emails, but that strategy backfired. You can open a can of worms asking for feedback. It is kind of like going around a restaurant and asking the patrons, "How is your meal?" Some people will find something wrong with anything. I think it is best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Do you have any tips or tricks for getting buyers to leave feedback? If so, post them and share your ideas!

Happy Selling,

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eBay Coach Coupon Giveaway - 28 Grocery Coupon Inserts

It is coupon time again! I have 28 inserts to give away, which will be divided between 2 winners. The inserts are the Smart Source from January 10, and the Winter P&G insert.

To enter, just leave a comment below. For extra entries (and a better chance of winning), do any of the following:

Post a link to this giveaway on:

Your own blog
Your Facebook page
A Facebook group’s wall
Twitter
A group or forum
StumbleUpon
Digg
Your MySpace page
Bulk email your friends in your email address book

You can use the share button below to quickly share this giveaway. Be sure to leave a comment for each “extra” that you do. Winner will be announced on January 22. Good luck!

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eBay Coach Video Tutorial - eBay Fee Calculator

Free site where you can calculate what your eBay and Paypal fees will be when selling your items. Watch the tutorial:



Be careful with upgrades, they can add up quickly. Also, don't forget to add in your Powerseller discount.

Happy Selling!

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Follow Up - Kellogg's All Bran Fiber Drink Mix

Back in October, I posted about this discontinued item, All Bran Fiber Drink Mix. I actually found quite a few of them at grocery stores and have had them for sale in my eBay store inventory since that time. The last one sold over the weekend. Here is the listing:

Here is the math:

Clearance price at grocery store: $4.89
Coupon stuck on each box: -$2.oo
My price: $2.89
Sale price for 2 boxes: $21.95
My profit before fees: $19.06

I found about 16 of these so my total profit on this obscure little grocery store item was $152.00. Granted it took about 3 months for all of them to sell, but I am ok with that. Not bad for something that I picked up while grocery shopping, and took me about 10 minutes to list!

Keep sending in your great finds to eBaycoach@yahoo.com

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Niche Product to Sell on eBay - Cigar Boxes

Have you ever noticed a cigar shop in your town or neighborhood? They are all over the place. It is time to start paying attention to cigar shops. Cigar box crafts are becoming a hot item and many crafters are looking to eBay for the boxes. Both the wood and cardboard cigar boxes are good sellers, but the wooden boxes will sell for more.

Look for cigar boxes at flea markets and garage sales. Cigar boxes sell best on eBay in lots. If you are crafty, you may want to take this one step further and create something with the cigar box and sell it on Etsy. Cigar box purses are all the rage and selling for over $100 on Etsy. For example, this gorgeous cigar box purse sells for $125:



A fellow seller and friend actually told me about this niche, and learned how to make the purses by watching the video series, "Cigar Box Purses for Fun and Profit" to learn how to make cigar box purses. She sells them on Etsy and has a very fun and profitable business and is only one stream of income. It might be something fun to try.

Click here for a list of 395 eBay friendly wholesalers along with 5 important facts for choosing profitable wholesale products to sell on eBay.

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Learn to flip eBay Auctions in 5 minutes - Free Tutorial

You may have seen my posts about flipping listings using a misspelling tool. Here are the exact steps for how I do this.




Key Tips for Flipping Listings:

1. Know what you are looking for! What brands of clothing, electronics, fragrances, or other goods do you purchase? Think about what is expensive and plug in those keywords. I look for brands like Burberry and Ralph Lauren that have products in lots of different categories - clothes, shoes, fragrances, household, accessories, etc. Browse websites that carry expensive products such as Nordstrom, Saks 5th Avenue, Bloomingdales, Macys. Keep a list of brand names to search for. Zone in on international sounding words (French, Italian, Spanish) as these are frequently misspelled. Good categories are apparel, shoes, fragrances, cosmetics, electronics, musical instruments, and cameras. Stay away from handbags as they are usually not authentic. Also be careful with jewelry if you are not an expert.

2. Do your research. Know what the item sells for on eBay. If you aren't paying for a research tool, now is the time to start. It will pay for itself in one flip. Try Terapeak or Hammertap.

3. Sort search results by ENDING SOONEST. Focus on items you can win in the next few hours. Watch items a few days out and check on them later.

4. Set your limits. The objective is to win the item at a low enough price to resell for a profit. Do the math and stick to your high bid. If you don't win, move on. My limit is at least $30. If I can't make a $30 profit (after fees are deducted) it is not worth my time.

5. Watch shipping fees. You will need to add shipping fees into your total cost of the item. Remember that you will have to re-ship the item. Avoid fragile items as they will have to be shipped to you, and then shipped out again to your customer and this opens up opportunities for damage. Focus on items that are easy to package and ship and aren’t fragile.

6. Always snipe. The more attention an auction receives, the more costly a bidding war is which is not what you want as a buyer. Stay under the radar, watch the item, and use a sniping tool.

7. Prepare to lose. You aren’t going to win every auction. That is ok. You only want to win the auctions for items you can resell for a nice profit. There is no sense winning an item just for the sake of winning it - we are in this to make a fast profit. I lose about 60% of the auctions I try to snipe.

8. Stay positive. Millions of new listings are added every day so there will be plenty of opportunities to win other auctions.

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Making Money During the Arctic Blast

I received this email from Cotie in the freezing Northeast. Due to the awful weather, he (like many of you) can't get out and make the rounds to buy eBay inventory. His question:

"I'm a 62 year old male (not a work at home mom) but I took early retirement after my computer programming career ended, due to outsourcing. After my career ended in 2001, I started selling books on eBay then eventually Amazon.

My question: Old man winter is here in the Northeast at full force and it's time to start making money with my brain until summer comes back. I love researching things to look for at garage sales and thrift stores and was thinking of writing a bunch of articles on ehow. But, I wonder. Would it be more lucrative to start a blog on that subject (I see it as sort of like the now defunct Auction Rebel blog.)

If so, how do you receive your money from a blog. On eHow they pay you thru PayPal, but how is the money distributed from a blog? Would I make just as much just writing those articles on ehow? or would I make more doing it via a blog?"

Ok, now for my answer. Keep in mind that different people will answer this in different ways, but here are my thoughts.

1) Continue to write articles on eHow. You will build your article bank over time and it will start to pay better as time goes by. Before you jump into a blog you need some practice with online writing and start to establish an internet presence.

2) The traffic is already on eHow, you don't have to drive it there as you would with a blog. I have close to 300 articles here, and I make about over $500 a month. I only add about 10 articles a month and have been writing for the site for just over 2 1/2 years. The trick is learning to write articles that drive high paying ads and submitting content on a continual basis to build your article bank. Click here for an outstanding guide on how to really start making money on eHow - this eHow guide is my Bible.

3) You can learn about blogging while you continue to add your articles to eHow. I recommend The Niche Blogger. This is a 1 month course that only costs $19.95. The teacher (who makes money with many niche blogs) explains the entire process step by step and you move thru the course at your own pace. I wish I had found this course sooner. I have 2 more blogs that I expect to launch in the next few weeks. My goal is to eventually have several streams of income set up that I won't have to rely so heavily on eBay (although I will never quit completely) - but working with a physical product is labor intensive.

4) When you have a blog, you are paid by the affiliates and advertisers whose products you promote. There are many different companies out there. For example, I get checks from Google AdSense, Clickbank, Commission Junction, and Logical Media. It is like having a bunch of part time jobs - you eventually have checks coming in all the time and it is wonderful!

I hope this helps. You may also want to get active in the eHow Forums. There are many helpful writers there who also blog. Also check out sites like Bukisa, HubPages, Associated Content, and Suite 101 who pay you to write.

Good luck!

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eBay Shipping Resources

Shipping can be a confusing issue for newer sellers. Here is a list of shipping resources. You may want to bookmark this page so it is handy if you have a question in the future.

Always Use Delivery Confirmation

First Class Polymailers (I buy mine here)

Free Shipping Supplies

How to Charge for Shipping on eBay Auctions

How to Print Postage from Your Home Computer

How to Reduce Shipping Costs on eBay Items

How to Ship a Package Internationally

How to Ship a Package to a Military Address

How to Use USPS Flat Rate Mailers to Save Money on Shipping

Increase Sales by Offering International Shipping

Schedule a USPS Pickup (I have a standing pickup every day for 10 packages. You don't have to know the exact number - just estimate based on your weekly volume. Some days I don't have any. You can schedule pickups up to 3 months in advance. The scheduling feature just helps your post office know what to expect, and your carrier gets paid a little more for the scheduled pickups - and they like that! I leave my pickup at the mailbox in a tub every day, unless it is raining or I wont' be home. If it is raining, my mail carrier knows to blow the horn and I bring them out.)

Streamline Your Shipping Procedure (how to use the AWAITING SHIPMENT view in your selling manager and use Paypal shipping)

Tips for Shipping Gift Cards Sold on eBay

What to do When You Ship the Wrong Item

Happy Selling!

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My eBay Flip - True Religion Jeans

This is how you have fun with eBay! I love flipping listings. Here is another one I did, and it just sold on Best Offer a few minutes ago. (Click here for a 5 minute video tutorial on how to flip listings.)

Original listing:

Trrue Religion Mens Jeans Size 34 Blue

Fatal errors:

NEW NWT keywords not in title
(anyone searching for NEW True Religion jeans won't find this listing)

True is spelled "Trrue" - misspelled words don't come up in searches
(when the word is spelled correctly)

Poor photo - item is sideways

No return policy

Listing does not give fabric content, measurements

Shipping is too high

No international shipping

I paid $51.00 + $9.99 for shipping. Total investment = $60.99

Here is my listing:

New NWT True Religion Jeans Big Billy T 34 x 32 $345

Improvements:

Added several more photos

Used keyword NEW NWT in title, spelled brand name correctly

Gave fabric content and measurements in description

Added 30 day return policy

Added international shipping

Charged $5.50 for domestic shipping
(these will fit in a Flat Rate Envelope - click here for more info on using Flat Rate envelopes)

I ran these on auction first and they didn't sell. Then I put them in my store inventory with Best Offer. I had several crummy offers. Accepted an offer for $150. I could have held out for more, but my profit on this item is $81, so I am happy with that. Waiting is part of the game, but don't get greedy.

Summary:

My cost = $60.99
Sale price = $150
My profit = $81.32
Time invested = 30 minutes

You can see that in this case, I realized an income of $162.64 an hour doing this. You can learn to do this, too!


Find sloppy listings and resell the items for way more than you paid for them!

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New Year, New Blog!

I hope you will join me on this new journey as we travel down an exciting new road in 2010! Visit my new blog, Make Money With Your Brain - that focuses on how to make money online. Let's face it, eBay can be time consuming and labor intensive. There are many ways to make money online that do not involve physical products. Examples include affiliate marketing, selling information products, referral programs, writing, and advertising. This new blog will focus on other ways to earn money using the internet - just the internet and your brain.

I also want to thank all of my readers for their support and loyalty. The eBay Coach blog will continue as usual. Please visit my new blog and subscribe so you can learn about new ways to supplement your eBay income.

Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year!

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