Today Innovative Passive Income presents a guest post by Chris K on making money on eBay with garage sale finds. While this is not truly a Passive Income idea, it certainly is Innovative.
Believe it or not, there’s one simple way of making extra money each week that is at least partially recession-proof: garage sales. People are feeling a serious financial squeeze these days, and they have turned to liquidating their possessions to get the cash they need. But whether in boom or recession, targeting garage sales and garage sales items traditionally represents a great opportunity to find bargains on a wide variety of items, which can then be resold for some serious profits.
How can this be done? Easy. First, here’s a list of things that you need (or are strongly recommended):
- A brain and a pulse
- Vehicle
- Smartphone with internet access (iPhone recommended)
- Home computer
- eBay and PayPal account
- $100 starting funds
And that’s roughly all you need to get started. So here’s the procedure:
1) Try selling your own stuff on eBay. If you have no eBay selling experience, you should first get a feel for it by selling stuff you already own, so that you understand all the stages of the process: taking pictures, accurately describing the item, answering buyer questions, receiving payment, packing, shipping, and so on. This happens to be a good way of getting your startup cash if you don’t have it.
2) Find garage sales in your local area. Check your newspaper or craigslist for local garage sales, or alternatively use gsalr.com, a site that aggregates craigslist garage sales onto a map (and even lets you print directions). Plan the community garage sales you want to visit and make sure you plan an efficient driving route.
3) Shop around and research items. Once you’ve arrived at the garage sale, check out the items for sale and look them up on your phone on eBay. Ensure that you are logged in to eBay, so you can search completed listings. Once you’re looking at completed listings, green prices mean that the item was sold at the price, red means it was unsold. Beware, as many sellers list items on eBay for high prices, but that doesn’t mean that the items are worth that much. Services like Terapeak, which also has an iPhone app (my weapon of choice), aggregate past listings for you to generate an average sold price and a sell-through rate (i.e. what percentage of the items listed that ended up selling).
4) Haggle. People will often quote you reasonable prices, but in large part your business will not survive unless you haggle. (Check out my article on haggling for a basic primer.) Sellers are also eager to sell you their items, so don’t be afraid to make an offer of what you want to pay. Just remember to be polite, never insult the item or the seller, never refer to eBay, etc. Don’t set yourself apart from the crowd and the results will be favorable.
5) Prepare and sell your finds on eBay. Possibly an even more time-consuming step than going out and finding the stuff to sell, this is the real core of your business: getting the items ready to be used in someone else’s home. This means testing, cleaning, fixing, etc. the item, and then listing it on eBay. Make sure to accurately describe the item’s condition, as buyers hold a lot of power on eBay through the ability to leave bad feedback – don’t even let them get the thought that you are a bad seller.
6) Keep records. Good records will help you measure your progress, as well as give you some ideas as to how to improve your business (e.g., which types of items are the most profitable). The level of detail in your records is up to you, but it helps to use your tax needs as a baseline (costs, revenues, deductible expenses), and add-on whatever you think is worthwhile information to accumulate. I use an Excel spreadsheet with a simple SKU (Stock-keeping unit) numbering system, so I can pre-box items without having to write the full name on the box.
That’s only a simple overview – there is so much that can go into your business to make you more efficient. You may find that as you’re starting out, you are not making as much per hour as you’d like, but note that there is a learning curve and a lot of mistakes you have to make before your process becomes more efficient. Through time, experience, and the help of my articles, you will not only become better at finding more good garage sale items to resell, but you will also avoid problem items, haggle better, and list, package, and ship more efficiently – ultimately making you more extra cash each week.
Read more in depth strategy for eBaying garage sale stuff at http://www.intellectualprops.com
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I totally agree with the point “sell your own stuff”. It is surprising how much you can learn about selling on eBay just by selling some of your own junk. This is how I got started with my first business.
alex johnson´s last [type] ..set up ebay business
Thanks for the comment. Most of us have too much stuff anyway, so why not sell it off.