Catching the ebay bug
11 December 2006Ok, it sounds silly even to me but, I thought it would be fun to try to build a small ebay business in my spare time to generate some spending cash for those do-dads I just can’t seem to get my wife to allow me to purchase. So, to start I decided I’d begin dumping all of the working computer gear and tech toys that I am no longer using. So far, so good. I managed to unload my iPaq (hx4700) and my old Apple Newton (MessagePad 110).
What I’ve learned so far:
If you have a reasonably valuable or hot item the “Sell it now” option is great if you really want to sell it now.
If however, you want to let it run the full length of the auction avoid this. Experimenting and playing around I added it to both the Newton and the iPaq and they both sold in hours. I am pretty certain had I allowed the auction to run the full length (5 days) I may have made a few extra dollars.
Companies that pack boxes for you charge a lot for the boxes.
When the two auctions closed I found myself woefully unprepared as far as having reasonable shipping containers. So I went to my local UPSStore to have them packed for me. Big mistake! The packing material for these two items ended up cutting deeply into my profits from the sales. Later I found that the USPS will give you free shipping boxes.
Selling things on ebay is incredibly addictive.
I am now constantly looking at everything in my house and garage thinking “hmmmm……I wonder what that would sell for.” If my old things keeps selling well I will run out of inventory pretty quickly. So, I am going to have to find a source for my items. In a later post I elaborate on what I’ve looked at so far and what I think about them.
