Beginners guide on Buying and Flipping Items on eBay - Make $$

[BradInPhx]

There have been in a few threads that I have been posting in about selling on eBay and I have received quite a few PM's from other Miscers with various Questions.

There are a few eBay sellers here who operate an eBay store with a product line, that is a different ball game than what I will explain here. Other eBay sellers are welcome to chime in, I am always learning new things.

I have been selling on eBay for a while now and have been successful with it. I currently do this on the side as I have a full time job. I have a lot of outside the box ideas, tricks and tips to share with you. I am not here to sell you a membership to some wholesale supplier because those are all gimmicks, I am writing this to share with you the art of buying locally and flipping on eBay for my Misc friends.

I have written a very advanced guide to how I buy and sell, I will post most of it here and keep updating it as I write more. I also am in the process of building a blog/website and more details about that will follow.

Being that I am sharing a lot of my tips and tricks with the misc, all I ask is that we keep the posting relevant to the subject here. If you want to ask a question without posting feel free to PM me, I apologize if I take a while to respond as I am fairly busy but will get to you!

This is going to be posted on a few posts because of the Size Limit


Acquiring Items

Buy locally from various sources to sell on eBay.


Craigslist is my main hub for purchases, I usually select a category on Craigslist and look for items with prices that catch my eye. I then tab over to eBay and check what the item is going for. See the Appraising Items section for more information.

Garage sales are another big way to buy items cheap. Most garage sales are not hosted to make money, its usually an angry wife that wants to get rid of all the useless shit that has piled up over the years. These wives just want to get rid of the items without “throwing them out.” You can walk up with a few items in your hand, offer $5 and walk away with some treasure.

I purchased a 3$ bread maker at a garage sale and sold it for 50$ thanks to eBay. Not every deal you find will be like that but you can find items where you will make $15-20 on easy, now imagine coming home with 20-30 items a weekend to list on eBay. I do not attend too many garage sales because the timing of these events does not work out with my social life, Its SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, there is no way I am up at the crack of dawn.

If you are familiar with local forums or forums that have local sections there is usually a classified sections. I am a huge car guru and belong to numerous car forums, I have all of the for sale sections bookmarked and check those frequently. Most forums have a trader rating similar to eBay’s feedback system so you know if the guy selling you that Xbox is legit or not.

Thrift stores often have donated items that are marked very low because they do not properly research the value of the item. I do not do much thrift store shopping but I have talked to some sellers who love digging through piles of old donated crap to find some item they can make 20$ on. If you can identify real silver, there is always silverware that is there, I do not possess this skill and probably will look into this some day.

Everywhere there is a deal! Keep your eyes open and always keep prices in your head, I was at a bar and this chick dropped her White iPhone 16gig 3GS and cracked the glass. I was standing right there and gave her my sympathy. She told me she didn't care because she was going to buy the iPhone4 the next day anyways. I told her I sell on eBay and would give her a 100$ bill right now for the phone. I showed her how to wipe everything and she gave me the phone right there. I found a guy on craigslist that could replace the glass (LCD still worked) for 35$. Total investment: 135$. Unlocked it myself for T-mobile used it for a few days for fun and sold it for 350$.

By now everyone has seen that silly show where a few dudes go around to storage unit auctions spend $500 on a unit and find $25,000 worth of gold coins or some other rare collectibles, give me a break. Yes, you could find grandma’s coin collection... I could also buy a lottery scratcher and win $25,000. Its a gamble and unless you know what you are doing its not worth it. I went to these before the show was aired and after. Before the show there was a smaller crowd of about 20-30 people bidding on units, I went recently and as I checked in on the list I noticed I was the 120Th person to check in! There were families there and everything, it was like a ****ing circus. I will not go back until that “treasure hunt” is over. Lucky for the commission based auctioneers, the prices on units were outrageous.

Local auctions are another platform that has provided me with some great results. Do a google search to find some local auctions, these are usually bankruptcy liquidators. If its an online only auction attend the on site preview for better viewing of the items. I went to a Wireless Phone store auction and they had a display case with 18 phones up for grabs. The auction listed the phones as dummy non working phones, I noticed these were incorrectly listed and were in fact all real high end phones. I won all 18 phones for $98 and sold them for over $700. If I would not have attended the preview, someone else would have made that money.


inb4 TL;DR

[BradInPhx]

Protecting Yourself as a buyer

Here I will explain a few ways to protect yourself when buying items on craigslist or other classified websites

ALWAYS MEET AT A PUBLIC PLACE... I always meet at QuikTrip which is a busy and well lit gas station. They always have cops coming to use their clean bathrooms, and the place has video surveillance. I refuse to meet at a home (unless you are buying a huge TV or furniature) and never meet at a Wal-Mart parking lot (too big). I have actually backed out of a few deals because the seller made excuses as to why he couldnt meet at a gas station. Be alert and if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

I always carry a weapon on me when doing a transaction. I have a Concealed Carry Permit and always have a gun concealed. If you do not carry a weapon or reside in an area where guns are not allowed, I suggest bringing a friend with you for safety.

Researching the seller in my opinion is a smart move. I google their phone number, email address or any other info I have on them. What to watch out for: Other flippers/brokers, scams and people who look like they might do harm from you (yes a little profiling, but better be safe than sorry. If I am buying a 500$ phone and the email brings up a dude's ******** that looks like he is freshly out of prison, I pass).

I made the mistake of meeting a guy who was a phone flipper on craigslist and just by chance I noticed the Water damage sticker appeared to be replaced, he had fixed a water damaged phone and tried to sell it to me claiming it was Mint. Some of these guys are trying to make a quick buck and disappear.

On Sprint and Verizon phones the number called “ESN” can be reported as a bad ESN. This can be a number of reasons, mainly stolen and lost phones. An ESN can also become bad if the customer does not pay their bill. Always check the ESN via www.checkesnfree.com. Phones with bad ESNs can be flashed to Crickett Wireless and still have a good market.

[ShayZ]

tldr

[WedgeChef]

TL:dr

jake

[BradInPhx]

Taking Pictures



I use a Nikon S8100 Digital Camera with an Eye-Fi Card. This camera is a very good Point & Shoot camera. I went to Costco to purchase a new camera after my other one died, I tested each camera by taking close up (Flower/Macro Mode) shots of my cell phone trying to show the detailed scratches from where I have dropped it. The S8100 did a very good job and is my choice for eBay pictures. Protect this camera as this plays a major role in your business!

Buyers want to see that the picture is authentic, the best way to show this is to have a background with your eBay user name on it. I have many large and small pieces of white paper with my user name on it for various sizes of items. This not only makes all of your eBay listings uniformed, but it gives the buyer confidence when bidding. The buyer now knows you actually have the item and have taken your own pictures and not stolen them from another seller. Match this with Flower/Macro mode up close pictures and you will have buyers bidding your items up higher than you expected!

The Eye-Fi card is a great investment, as I am taking the pictures in the other room, my photos are being transferred via wi-fi to my computer and automatically uploaded to Photobucket. Any videos I take get automatically sent to YouTube. I then go to photobucket ans drag and drop my photos into the appropriate albums. Without the eye-fi card, I have to take all the pictures and plug my camera into the computer, transfer them to my computer and from there I upload them to Photobucket. This 4 Gigabyte card was $50 when I bought it and saves me about 20-30 minutes every time I take pictures (depending on how many items I am listing)

Hosting Pictures

I use a service called Photobucket, its free for the basic plan and very easy to use. Because of the many views eBay brings in, you will run out of bandwidth quickly. Upgrading to a Pro account is the best way to go and is about 50$ per year or you can pay monthly.

I make an album for each item I sell, after taking the pictures I upload them into the album and then you can select all and click the button that says “Generate HTML and IMG codes.” This will bring up a box that has a few boxes within. You want to select the box with the code that says “HTML for websites & blogs Full Size.” This should automatically copy the code to embed all the pictures into your eBay listing. You will then paste the code into the eBay listing.


eBay offers image hosting, I find it to be slow to upload and the pictures are only put in one place, when you host pictures on your own, you are free to put the pictures wherever you like.

I have also made videos and uploaded them to YouTube to embed into eBay listings. These are a great idea for Auto listings or for items that have moving parts that you want to show exactly how they work. YouTube if very easy to upload and its all step by step.


Shipping

I use either UPS or USPS (Post Office). I am lucky to work for my father’s business and have access to a large selection of shipping suppllies. You should invest in a tape gun and packing tape as you will need one of these for taping up boxes. A few different sizes of boxes and some packing peanuts should be purchases as well. I always save boxes, packing peanuts and those bags of air from any shipment I receive at my office.

When I am listing an item on ebay I find out what size box it fits in and calculate the shipping price before I list the item. Buyers can rate you based on your shipping price and if you charge $10 for something that costs $4.90 to ship, you will most likely get some complaints. USPS has flat rate boxes which are awesome for ebay sellers. I have one of each size always set up so I can set the item in each box to see which box would work best. The best part about flat rate shipping is the boxes are provided by USPS, a great way to save money!

Go to USPS.com and order postage supplies (they are free for priority mail, get a bunch of flat rate envelopes, small/med/large boxes).

[BradInPhx]

tldr

Lol, not a single fuk was given :0

[BradInPhx]

Space reserved for more Posts

[mrfatwrecker]

Lol, not a single fuk was given :0

You're speaking for us

Thanks

[BradInPhx]

Space Reserved for more Posts

[GeneralBroseph]

space for sale

[mikevall]

what is one item you have made the most money on?

[steelers1377]

Tl;dr

[BradInPhx]

I will be updating this with a lot more soon.

[ukbrah]

will read

[BradInPhx]

what is one item you have made the most money on?

I bought a 2007 Shelby GT500 for 28,000 and sold it 8 days later for 33,500. The only thing I invested was 3-4 hours detailing the hell out of it and gas.

Normal item wise, I bought a set of Tippman a-5 paintball guns from a family that sold their cabin for $600 and sold the set on ebay for almost $1300.

The single item I made the most on was when I was at a bar and this chick dropped her White iPhone 16gig 3GS and cracked the glass. I was standing right there and gave her my sympathy. She told me she didnt care because she was going to buy the iPhone4 the next day anyways. I told her I sell on ebay and would give her a 100$ bill right now for the phone. I showed her how to wipe everything and she gave me the phone right there. I found a guy on craigslist that could replace the glass (LCD still worked) for 35$. Total investment 135$, unlocked it myself for T-mobile used it for a few days for fun and sold it for 350$.

[Ingrowntoenail]

eBay used to be alright. Then they started getting S-loads of deadbeat bidders and they dont even let sellers drop Negs on these aholes.

[jamout]

Don't forget to always get delivery confirmation when using USPS.

[BradInPhx]

eBay used to be alright. Then they started getting S-loads of deadbeat bidders and they dont even let sellers drop Negs on these aholes.

You can have bidder requirements or pay immediately on buy it not listings. I will go over this later as I am still writing that section

[krak3n]

I bought a 2007 Shelby GT500 for 28,000 and sold it 8 days later for 33,500. The only thing I invested was 3-4 hours detailing the hell out of it and gas.

Normal item wise, I bought a set of Tippman a-5 paintball guns from a family that sold their cabin for $600 and sold the set on ebay for almost $1300.

The single item I made the most on was when I was at a bar and this chick dropped her White iPhone 16gig 3GS and cracked the glass. I was standing right there and gave her my sympathy. She told me she didnt care because she was going to buy the iPhone4 the next day anyways. I told her I sell on ebay and would give her a 100$ bill right now for the phone. I showed her how to wipe everything and she gave me the phone right there. I found a guy on craigslist that could replace the glass (LCD still worked) for 35$. Total investment 135$, unlocked it myself for T-mobile used it for a few days for fun and sold it for 350$.

Cool story bro

[GeneralBroseph]

Where do you buy most of these bargains? i have tried to find places to pick up a bargain but i have no where good to do this! Also not enough items to make a good amount of profit for your time.

how do you know what items are going to sell for more than u purchased them for? have u ever lost money from doing this on any items.

[ukbrah]

You should post what works better out of auction or buy it now.

And if auction, how long for, is a reserve price worth it?

I would imagine if you have a rare item an auction would be best.


In my experience the best time to end an auction is on a Sunday evening.


Also, how often do you make a loss?
What is your overall profit? / how long have you been doing it for?

[Bigbri73]

Good thread, thanks for the tips

[Mr.Miyagi]

eBay used to be alright. Then they started getting S-loads of deadbeat bidders and they dont even let sellers drop Negs on these aholes.

Yeah I agree. I've had more than one person back out on stuff I've been selling. This guide is pretty good for a beginner, not too much of an "advanced guide". The main point behind all of this is to always be looking for deals and knowing the ebay market price. I use the ebay app on my phone to quickly search for an item if I don't know the market. Still some good tips that I am going to test out, repped for the effort.

[BradInPhx]

Where do you buy most of these bargains? i have tried to find places to pick up a bargain but i have no where good to do this! Also not enough items to make a good amount of profit for your time.

how do you know what items are going to sell for more than u purchased them for? have u ever lost money from doing this on any items.

My 1st post has all the areas I look for deals, Look at the appraising items section for how I know what they will sell for, basically just search completed items. I have not lost money on the item, but I sold something internationally and it got lost and I had to refund the money. So I lost on that deal and no longer sell international.

[BradInPhx]

Yeah I agree. I've had more than one person back out on stuff I've been selling. This guide is pretty good for a beginner, not too much of an "advanced guide". The main point behind all of this is to always be looking for deals and knowing the ebay market price. I use the ebay app on my phone to quickly search for an item if I don't know the market. Still some good tips that I am going to test out, repped for the effort.

Yeah, I am going to change the title to Beginner's guide for now. I have like 5 more sections I am going to write for more advanced.

Currently working on these sections: Packing Lists/Buyer letter, Paypal, Paypal Holds, Keeping Track, Time Involved, Deadbeat Bidders, Feedback

[repneg]

[Mr.Miyagi]

Yeah, I am going to change the title to Beginner's guide for now. I have like 5 more sections I am going to write for more advanced.

Currently working on these sections: Packing Lists/Buyer letter, Paypal, Paypal Holds, Keeping Track, Time Involved, Deadbeat Bidders, Feedback

Cool. Subbed for later reading.

[Fernando Rollins]

What happened to the other thread? or did you just post that stuff in another users thread?

[BradInPhx]

You should post what works better out of auction or buy it now.

And if auction, how long for, is a reserve price worth it?

I would imagine if you have a rare item an auction would be best.


In my experience the best time to end an auction is on a Sunday evening.


Also, how often do you make a loss?
What is your overall profit? / how long have you been doing it for?

Still writing more and will cover these.


Rarely make a loss, been doing this since I was 16 on and off. In December I made about 2500 in profit January about 1500 and I have flipped a few cars in between now and January. I have been super busy with work and havnt had the motivation to go and buy stuff.

[StrongForm]

Will read later, misc is retarded sometimes, this guy is actually giving good advice..