eBay Seller Success Story - Old Spice Cool Contact Wipes

I recently received this eBay Seller Success Story from Lori McAulliffe of Rocket City Sales:

Greetings Suzanne – As you know my husband, Thomas McAulliffe and I have been an eBay PowerSeller for over 10 years now. I had to share this great sold story with you because it was inspired by you!

I often recall your FeedBlitz and eBay Selling Coach stories of finding no longer manufactured products and reselling for a nice profit. Through you I have learned there are people out there who still want to use these items and will pay for it.

My story started when I was spring cleaning inside my home and ran across several unopened boxes of Old Spice Cool Contact Wipes. I purchased these boxes several years ago on clearance at Target during my Extreme Coupon Queen days. Believe I paid $1 or less per box. My husband used them for a while, and then discovered they made him break out. So the unused boxes have been sitting in the closet for quite a while. I was almost about to throw them in the trash when all of a sudden it hit me – eBay – better check before I toss.

So as any avid eBay Seller knows the potential advantage of finding such a niche product is to research before you list. After researching closed listings, I found the average selling price to be approx $15-$19; with a sell thru rate at 100%. Oh me oh my – I did a happy dance. Needless to say I saved them from the trash and listed them on eBay. Here is a completed listing:






One of the buyers was soooo excited about their purchase, this is the feedback they left (click to enlarge):




So far we have sold 3 of the 6 boxes at $19.99 each. Now if only every item we sold on eBay would be this profitable!

Thanks Suzanne for being a great source of inspiration,
Lori McAulliffe

Do you have a great sale or an interesting eBay item to share? Send your find to eBaycoach@yahoo.com for consideration.


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eBay Marketing Calendar: May 2012

Today's post is by guest blogger Chris Taylor. Here are a few marketing tips to use to get ready for selling during the busy month of May:

Yes, I’m a procrastinator. I even waited until the last second to write this post. It might be a genetic thing. Unfortunately one of the keys to becoming a successful eBay merchant is that you need to market your products at the right time. And if you sell seasonal items, that means you typically have to prepare weeks and sometimes months in advance.

To make my mom proud, I’ve decided to turn over a new leaf and listen to my own advice. So looking ahead (can’t believe I said that!), May brings us a variety of events that eBay sellers should leverage to help bring in money by having the right products at the right time of the year. What makes this selling strategy even more successful is how heavily these events are pushed by other businesses. Essentially they are helping to do some of your marketing for you. Now it’s up to you to take advantage of it.

Are you ready?

Cinco de Mayo – May 5th
Bust out your sombreros, maracas and most importantly, your party gear. Cinco de Mayo is the perfect opportunity to be ramping up your sales on party platters, decorations and Mexican-themed attire. Buyers will be scouring eBay looking for ways to make their house party memorable. Better hurry on this one, only a few weeks away!

Mother’s Day – May 13th
The keyword “mothers day gifts” gets searched for over 200,000 times a month on Google. Unlike me, many buyers will search well in advance. So you should be ready now. Of course if you list your great Mother’s Day gifts the day before then you’ll at least have me as a potential customer.

This is the perfect time for you to be ramping up your listings of photo albums and frames, jewelry, candles, pampering gifts and other gifts for around the house.

Indy 500 – May 27th
Just about every time there is a major sporting event like the Indy 500, it’s pretty common to see a huge spike in searches for memorabilia. So many fans just witnessed their favorite driver come through at the last second for the win, and they want to make that memory last.

Take advantage of these types of sporting occasions by ramping up on that particular sport’s memorabilia. For NASCAR, you can be listing car replicas, hats, shirts and other racing-themed items. This is a great way to capitalize on impulse buys while the thrill of the race is still fresh in their minds.

Moving Month
Did you know that the month of May is widely known as moving month? The majority of home and rental moves take place in May, and as an eBay seller that means you should be preparing for an increase in decorative and home furnishing sales. And a lot more related to homes, apartments and condos.

Making Your Listing Stand Out
Don’t forget about the importance of making your listing stand out from the competition. Other eBay sellers will be trying to capitalize on these seasonal events as well, and you can enhance your listing by using a custom eBay listing template. A custom template will help give you the professional and trusted appearance buyers are looking for when spending money online.

Want more ideas on what you to sell this month? Checkout the eBay Retail Marketing Calendar from Page Mage to see a complete list of monthly events and trends for all of 2012 that you should be leveraging.

Chris Taylor is VP of Marketing at Page Mage. Page Mage, a recipient of eBay's 2011 Ecosystem Champion Award, offers Billboards, a "Top 10 Most Popular" application for free custom eBay listing templates for eBay sellers looking to stand out from the competition.


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USPS Rate Changes May 2012

The United States Postal Service will be changing their rates starting the first week in May 2012. Their first-class service is being reclassified from expedited, (which delivery time is between 2 to 3 days) to standard shipping service (with an estimated delivery time between 2 to 5 days). The name will be changed from First-Class Mail to First-Class Package.

All vendors who have online stores need to be ready when these changes occur. Please warn your customers of the upcoming changes, and reset your online store items with the new shipping options. If you sell on eBay, you will have a little help in updating your listings.

E-Bay will automatically make these changes on the listings that have First-Class Mail as a shipping service option during the first week in May. For those who list expedited shipping, it is required that the wording is changed in your shipping descriptions. For customers who want a true expedited delivery of your products, you may use a different service that offers a 2 to 3 day delivery time.

Take a moment to review your stores and your listings to make sure you are still able to meet the shipping time frame as show your customers. Click here for more information.


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Looks Like Cher Has Joined the eBay Craze

Image Courtesy of Google Images

This story got my attention this weekend when the officials from Adelaide in southern Australia announced their disappointment that Cher was selling a key to their city the star had received. The article talked about the listings that Cher has on eBay! Yes, the very same eBay we use to sell our items is now being used by Cher!

Actually, she is using a co-signor to sell a few items on eBay. Currently, there are four items for sale:

the before-mentioned Key to the City of Adelaide

Cher’s personal copy of Cher Forever Fit Book

photo of Cher meeting Queen Elizabeth

a pair of sandals she wore

The key appears to be a successful niche item with a current bid of $95,900. Below is a screenshot of the auction as it appears on eBay:



Why is Cher selling her items? Is this her new income stream? Well, not exactly.

The co-signor has posted a statement for her that says:

“Cher receives many awards and gifts from all over the world. And she is always humbled and touched by these gracious gestures. At certain times she goes through her huge collection and decides to share many of these special treasures with her fans, with all the proceeds going to Cher’s Charitable Foundation. Please know that the proceeds for [these auctions] are helping people all over the world through Cher’s charitable and humanitarian endeavors.

I wonder if she is willing to submit an eBay Seller Success Story. If you are, please email it to me at eBaycoach@yahoo.com for consideration.


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Disney Character Comes to Life

Image Courtesy of eBay

I am sure many boys and girls (of all ages) have a favorite character that they would love to own in real life. Well, if you are a fan of the Disney movies Cars and Cars 2, here is an auction you may hate that you missed.

An eBay seller in Nowata, OK, recently listed and sold a life size replica of Tow Mater, the beloved tow truck and sidekick of racecar Lightning McQueen. The vehicle was a 1955 Chevrolet 2-on dump truck before being transformed into “Mater”.

Below is a screenshot of the closed listing:







The description was very detailed. “Every effort was made to build this replica as close to the actual "Mater" as possible. The tow bed is very accurate and made from steel. All the lights work, including the rotating beacon light on top. Note the detailed "carburetor county" license plate. The winch and tow mechanism are just for show - they do not work. All the front "face" pieces are steel - including the teeth. This was all hand built and formed [sheet metal]. The windshield is covered in perforated vinyl that you can see out of, but you can't see in. The eyes are decals. Likewise the side and rear windows have been covered in perforated vinyl so it looks like Mater is driving himself.”

I am sure the question in your mind is did Mater run? The seller says it does! It could even be driven but since the windshield is covered in vinyl it could only be driven in “parades, taken to car shows by trailer, or just parked for display.”

After 4 bids, Mater found a new home. The winning bid was $8,000. I think Mater’s response to that would be, “Dad-gum!”


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Amazon Now Offers Labeling Service for FBA

Image Courtesy of FBAPower

Amazon is expanding its services to help support the FBA seller. The recently announced FBA Label Service can help simplify sending in your products for Amazon fulfillment. Any item that does not qualify for Stickerless, Commingled Inventory and/or has a barcode qualifies for this service. For the fee of 20 cents per item, Amazon will label your products once they are received in the warehouse.

This could be a good option if you do not have a laser-printer readily available, are all out of labels, or have a large shipment but not the time to label each item. This may really work for you if labeling your items for shipment is a part of the process you really do not love.

With a large shipment, it will save a lot of time. With this service, you will not need to label each print out the labels and sticker each item before shipment. While this may cut into your profit margin, the time savings may be worth it.

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My Right Hand Auction

We all use eBay to sell items for different reasons. We sell things we no longer need. We use it to sell great finds from the stores we shop. One eBay seller is using it to get rid of a bit of bad luck!

The seller seems to be ready for better times that apparently include getting rid of her hand!

I am selling my hand as it brings nothing but bad luck to my life.

It has been trapped in a door, bitten by a dog, burned by a flexilead and broken in a fall. I also sawed through the thumb a few years ago and the scar causes pain occasionally.

Please note: my watch is not included.

A screenshot of the listing is below:





The seller, located in Wantage, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, offered local pickup for her item. Things may be looking up for the seller since she had two bidders and was able to sell her unlucky right hand for about $1.57 US. Do you think the bidding would have gone higher if she had included the watch? On to better days!

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George Washington Chicken Nugget

A few weeks ago, I blogged about an eBay auction for a grilled cheese sandwich that sported a likeness of NFL Quarterback Tim Tebow. Now a chicken nugget “celebrity” look-alike auction has surfaced.

A screenshot of the closed auction is shown below.







The seller added this description to the listing:

Approximately 3 years ago, I treated my children to “99 cent McNugget Tuesday” and play time at our local McDonald’s. As I was cleaning up, I noticed one particular nugget and began to laugh. I picked it up for a closer look, and sure enough it was in the likeness of President George Washington. I decided to take it home and show my husband this hysterical find.

When he arrived home, I pulled it out of the freezer and he could not believe his eyes. We shared a moment of laughter as we joked about putting it on (eBay). Then back in the freezer it went.

This “President George Washington Chicken McNugget” became a show and tell item for friends and family who came to visit, and all have responded with awe and laughter over this remarkable find. We have shared many laughs over this “President George Washington Chicken McNugget”, but now he has been called to a higher purpose.

The seller was hoping to use this presidential McNugget to raise money for a church camp for a group of students from Iowa. Unfortunately, there were no bidders and the McNuggest remains in her freezer.



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Amazon to Open Fifth Indiana Fulfillment Center

Amazon FBA grows again! Amazon has announced its FIFTH fulfillment center for Jeffersonville, Indiana. The new center is slated to open later this year and will employ more than 1.050 new jobs by 2015. The warehouse is expected to open Fall 2012.

This center will be approximately 900,000 square feet. It will join the centers in Indianapolis, Whitestown, and Plainstown to create more than 4-million square feet of warehouse space for Amazon in the state of Indiana.

Amazon is investing more than $150 million dollars to build this facility in an area of southern Indiana that has a rapidly growing transportation and distribution industry. According to the announcement from the company, Indiana has more than 1.1 billion tons of freight travel through its state, making it the fifth busiest state for commercial freight traffic in the nation. How is that possible? Indiana its more than 4,700 miles of mainline rail track, three international airports and more than 11,000 highway miles.

The new fulfillment center is also good news for the Jeffersonville and southern Indiana areas which were heavily damaged a tornado in early 2012.


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