Auction Power Guide

I am in the middle of Ebaying a massive pile of things that I don’t want or don’t use anymore from around my house. I’m about 25% of the way through it all right now and am realizing that I am literally getting owned by both shipping and Ebay fees.

I know that the fees are standard and there is nothing that can be done about them, but my concern in this question is the shipping. I’m a frequent shopper on Ebay as well and constantly buy things like $1.50 cables with free shipping from China or books for $7.00 with free shipping from the US. However, when I go to the USPS (the place I’ve found to be the least expensive to ship from so far), I generally get charged much higher prices than what these people that sell to me must be getting.

I was recently charged $6.85 to ship a book in a bubble mailer envelope and $13.xx to ship a 5lb set of pool balls. I always tell the post office clerk that I would like to ship my items using the least expensive and slowest route possible. If the sellers that I purchase from are being charged these shipping prices, then they are making little or losing money on sales.

I’m hoping someone could give me some insight on how these sellers are shipping their items. There must be something I’m missing. I can’t continue to sell items such as books when I’m selling them for $5 if I have to ask $6.85 for shipping.

Thanks in advance!

for items weighing 13oz or less, use first class mail/parcel. it goes the same way as sending a letter and is charged per oz

for books, use media mail.

if you are shipping priority mail, and the package is heavy, look into using flat rate.

the reason why the chinese cables can ship free is probably because they send what is the equivalent of first class mail since the package is light. books are shipped media mail which is a lot less expensive than other services.

http://postcalc.usps.com/ use that to calculate prices for your listings (but you need a general idea of weight for your packages).

all you really need to do is not offer free shipping for now(until you become more familiar with postage). have calculated shipping in your listings so that the buyer pays for it and you dont worry about how much it will cost you. but you need to know the weight of what you are shipping

What are some things that I can sell on Ebay to make a nice profit? I am a stay at home mom, and I have 4 little boys , my husband works but I would like to make some extra cash to help. Any ideas? What can I sell?

Books can be sold for a decent price. You’d probably get $10-$20 depending on the book/author. If it’s a somewhat rare book it could be sold $50-$70 or even more, depending on the price. If you have toys that your kids don’t want anymore could be sold for $5-$10 bucks depending on how many toys you sell. Jewelry/watches can be sold for some decent money. Like earrings that aren’t worth a lot and you don’t want anymore could be sold for about $20.
Hoped I helped!

I am going to sell my comic collection to a comic store. I think my collection is worth a couple of hundred. Not much. I have a big box of comics.

What can I do to make sure I get the best price possible? I don’t want to get taken advantage of… Thanks.

Comic stores generally do not take advantage of people, because if they did they would no longer be in business, most likely. What they will do is offer you a price that they feel is reasonable and they can afford, and you can either accept or decline.

Comic stores are like any other business, and need to make a profit, so they cannot possibly offer you full value. If your collection is worth $1000, and they offer you $1000, they’re going to spend 2-3 years selling your books to other customers to make back their money, and then what have they gained? Nothing. So they’ll only offer you a reasonable percentage based on what capital they have to spare and how they think they’ll be able to sell your collection back. So, in this scenario of a hypothetical $1000 collection, they may only offer you $400. Why? Because it’s going to take them MONTHS if not years to sell enough books from your collection to recoup their $400, and only then do they start to make a profit, which they need to do to stay open.

The benefit of going to a comic book store is that it is simple, and they’ll generally offer you a fair amount of money for the bulk of the collection, and hand you cash (or check, whatever the case may be). In order to get full value, you’d have to individually sell each book by whatever means you can – eBay, craigslist, yard sales and flea markets, etc. – but this will take you a very long time and you have, in essence, opened your own store, albeit a small one. You’ll find that your comics are likely not worth as much as you think they are, particularly if you were buying them in the 1980s and 90s. The majority of comics from that era routinely wind up in the discount "quarter bin" at most comic stores, because they are incredibly common and the store may have dozens of copies of any one issue. The only way to get rid of them is asking ridiculously low prices such as 25 cents.

Do some searches on ebay looking for completed auctions and try to find the same comics you have, and see what they routinely go for. Keep in mind that if you see lots of individual issues for sale at $2-5, that means that you, too, will have to INDIVIDUALLY sell them to see those prices. As a collection, they’ll likely only go for a fraction of that.

i am thinking about buying stuff from the thrift store and selling them on ebay. What i tems are sold best?
What kinds of books are needed and sold fast on ebay? newer books? older books?
any other suggestions?

If we all new these answers we would all be doing this. Your best bet is to hit yard sales and find bargains. I was at a local book store last night and I notice they had several books on ebay. You might try there and get one for beginners it wil get you some tips

Of all the items sold on eBay, selling books is the easiest and most profitable. Listing books and magazines is easier than most other items as the site helps you provide ready information about the number of pages, copyright details and pictures of the books to facilitate easy selling. The only effort you have to put is describing the condition of the book, and you are ready to sell.

If you are concerned about how to find books to sell on eBay, the answer is easy. If you have a collection of your own, you can consider putting them up for sale. Also keep a watch for announcements of library sales. They sell books in lots at throwaway prices. Thrift shops are also good places to buy books real cheap. However, you must ensure that there are no missing pages or stains or mold on the books.

For more information on selling on ebay books click here