Jess & her hubby Johann play storage wars in real life! After buying a unit at a storage auction for $230, they got hooked on buying and selling and built a multiple 6-figure business while keeping literally tons of good stuff out of landfills. Jess applies her MBA training and business consulting know-how to keep growing the business and now she's ready to pass on her expert knowledge to help you grow yours! Interesting Notes  Jess and her hubby had separate jobs before. They were both doing eBay as a side hustle. They find it fun to rescue and learn all things and pass them on. It kept growing. In the end, her husband quit his job and Jess closed down her consulting company. They liked the show Storage Wars since 2012. When they learned that there was a local one, they went to its auction. They got the last locker of the day. They were clueless as they pulled things out of the big crates. They spread things all over the floor and found some cool things to sell. The highlight of their first auction is the set of Royal Albert Old Country Rose China. It is a big set of a collectible pattern. They sold it and made about five times the money from that first auction. Since then, they kept buying more storage units which filled their garage with stuff. When they ran out of space, they found another one until they ventured into a warehouse. They realized that there is an actual business in buying storage units. So in 2016, they formalized their business. No one knows what is inside the storage unit. The auctioneer will open the unit and people try to peek and see using a flashlight. Then the bidding starts. If you win, you have a couple of days to empty everything out. Sometimes, they bought lockers that looked incredible but when opened, it was boxes of clothes, foods, and Christmas stuff. At other times, the other lockers that don't look so good surprised them. A few years back, they saw a unit with a big pile of pennies at the front. They bid on it. A guy started making fun of them saying, "Oh, there's $5 in pennies at the front of that unit. You can start getting your money back!". They paid $300 for it. It turned out the pennies are only at the top layer. Underneath it was all quarters and Canada's Loonies and Toonies - $1 and $2 coins amounted to $300 bucks. They got their money back. Jess and her hubby keep on learning about new product categories. As they learn more about what sells well for them, they become more selective about what they buy. They now have a better sense of what they can flip for the most money. They moved away from buying storage auctions to more consignments and estate sale picking. Doing so becomes more lucrative for them. There was a time someone dropped them 5,000 Beatles record. All of a sudden they researched about it. Recently, they got 100,000 Hot Wheels Diecast Cars consignment. They didn't know anything about it and so they did the research. One of Jess favorite categories to sell is Ephemera Paper. She loves

168: How To Add $300 A Month To Your eBay Sales - Jessica Oman

Jason is America's #1 thrifter and spends his time touring the country teaching others how to thrift and flip online. Jason was the star of Spike TV's Thrift Hunters and now hosts 2 Youtube shows Thrifty Business & Selling Past Your Expiration Date, Being Thrifty Over 50. Interesting Notes  A few years ago, Jason taught his retired parents how to sell on eBay. They are 76 years old and flip a lot of water skis and TV-VCR combo. They are making $2,000 a month selling part-time on eBay. Jason and his mom started the YouTube show called Selling Past Your Expiration Date Being Thrifty Over 50. It is a once a week, late at night talk show about thrifting for senior thrifters and sellers. Her mom loves doing the show and enjoys it. It made her a celebrity on YouTube. She would go to flea markets, and people would recognize her. And Jason, being a Mama's boy, enjoys it. He finds it fun to watch the older generation hosting YouTube shows. Jason loves to go to thrift stores. Someone tried to call him a picker, but he likes to call himself a thrifter. Pickers love to dig in attics, basements, and old barns. But Jason with a 6'5 feet height is not into getting on his knees and crawling around. He prefers going to thrift stores with air conditioning and bathrooms which is more comfortable. His wife has a corporate career. She stands five feet and three quarters. When they go thrifting, his wife searches from the middle shelf down while he searches from the middle shelf up. Jason is a big music nerd. He has over 4,000 CDs, alphabetized on shelves in his little library in their house. When he goes thrifting, he would conquer first the Media Section because that is what he knows well. His first stop is the Music Section. He would crash the CDs Section and pull out all the gems. Then, he would go to the Cassettes Section and check for eight tracks. He would also look through the record section to find video and computer games. After conquering the section he knows best, he would work on the rest of the store. He would hit over to the Men's Clothing because he is a man and he wears clothes. He is well versed in Men's T-shirts, button-down shirts, and jackets. He also knows what jeans are good to flip and so he would conquer that section too. Early on, he had also flipped bras because there's good money in used bras. But he made a one-time mistake of grabbing the same bra at the same time a lady had grabbed it on. So he made a note to himself to always shop on the right side of the bra rack. When he had his TV show Thrift Hunters, there is a group of guys who kept on poking him online. These guys only sold fine men's wear - high-end button-down shirts, suit coats, blazers, and the like. He does not use those stuff because he lives in Vegas and rarely wears sleeves on his shirts. But he took on the challenge. One day, he went thrifting a whole store. He went into its Sport's Coat Section. With his iPad, he looked up every single brand on eBay sold listings. Do

167: Learn How You Can Earn More By Thrifting - Jason T. Smith

David went from being bankrupt to selling over 2 million dollars in phones and electronics on eBay over the last 6 years. He has helped hundreds of people grow their eBay business through buying and selling phones off classified sites and reselling them on eBay. Interesting Notes  Broken cell phones sell fast on eBay!! Dave knows it because when he list it on eBay, it sells within a day or two. Before he did this interview, he listed $7,000 phones. He sold $200 within five minutes. And he expects to sell $3,000 overnight. This thing happens every single week. He believes that eBay has so much built-in traffic. With eBay, he gets to sell his products fast. Unlike a physical store where he has to talk to customers, people are already searching for stuff on eBay. When he hears the "cha-ching" on his phone, he would print the label on eBay, wrap the item in a bubble mailer, and it is done. Dave loves eBay because he could move so much inventory so fast. It also takes a whole selling part of the business away from him. It also enables him to focus on what he is good at, that is, acquiring inventory at a price where he can make a healthy profit. He gets his inventory by placing ads on classified sites - places like Facebook Groups and Craigslist. He would say, "We pay cash for phones". Then people would call and sell him their broken phones. He would offer them a price where he could make a 40% to 60% profit. Ten years ago, Dave and his wife had lost their house and car. He was dead broke and lived in his mom's basement. He worked from their home as a carpet cleaner and made $300 a week. He wanted to have a business that he could do part-time. The eBay business intrigued him because he likes the work at home idea. He enjoys working from their house. And to sell online looks exciting to him. So he started selling stuff on eBay. He started finding stuff from yard sales. The first item he sold is an old antique flag that had 48 stars instead of 50. He bought it for $20 but sold it for $.99 with free shipping. He spent three months finding junks at yard sales that did not pay off. On their wedding anniversary, he found a lady selling a designer purse - a Coach. At that time, Coach was a big thing. The lady sells the purse at $30. He bought it for his wife as a present on their wedding anniversary. He thought of selling purses on eBay but was afraid because of his previous experience. He looked at what is selling on eBay and found out that purses sell for $230. He realized that he needs to go for high-dollar value items. The next week, he found four Coach purses at the yard sale. He bought the purses for $15 per piece and made $200 over the weekend. That was a huge, life-changing moment for him. The next weekend he went out again. With a little more practice, he was able to make $400. Selling designer purses turned into a little eBay business for four months. Dave wanted to expand his little eBay business and have something consistent to sell. So he starte

166: How To Earn Over $10,000 A Month Flipping Phones On eBay - David Kosciusko

Mark Le Vine is co-owner, with his wife Robin, of Bubblefast, a shipping supply eCommerce business that began by selling a single roll of bubble cushioning on eBay in 1999. As pioneers, Bubblefast has enjoyed it's involvement in the eCommerce community ever since. Interesting Notes  Bubblefast will be celebrating their 20th anniversary on May 2019. Having been a while, they have seen a few things. Back in the old days, there were no many rules. The competition was not much and shipping was less complicated. Back then, it was not easy to take good pictures so pictures were not as important as it is today. PayPal was not a thing either. There was a lot of communication, back and forth, between the buyer and the seller. Once a seller sold the product, you had to sit on it and wait for the check to come in the mail before you even ship it. With the advanced technology, eBay has come a long, long way. Now, it has its own catalogs where you can use stock photos. It has a Feedback System where a Buyer can give a review. As a seller, you can manage payment under PayPal, so you can get paid electronically. eBay is doing all the things that help the sellers make selling easier and to be better in eCommerce. Today, eBay also has better customer service. They are more dedicated to helping you answer questions and even dig into some of the details. Listing is a lot easier and much more user-friendly now than it used to be. eBay is not a cut-throat environment. Everybody sells different, unique items and are not competing for the same market share. It is so diversified that although you may sell in the same category, you are not selling the exact same products. So, sellers can still help each other, feel good about it, and still make some money. eBay keeps in mind the buyer and the seller for every decision that they have to make. It looks at the big picture and makes the decision for the vast majority. Sometimes, looking at the big picture does not sit well with the individual seller. Sometimes, the decision may not go well with the individual seller. But, eBay thinks for the best overall for the marketplace. The more people tell eBay how they feel about the items, the more changes eBay can make to try to make it as best as possible for as many buyers and sellers. But if the buyers don't come to the platform, it does not matter what you sell or for how little you sell it. Nobody is there to buy the items. So eBay has to keep in mind and make sure that there is a lot of competition in the marketplace, not just within eBay. So eBay has to do its job to make sure that buyers come to eBay as oppose to other places. The online business or eCommerce operates 24/7. It is the only business where you can go to bed at night, then wake up in the morning and find out how much money you make. Mark went to a game several years ago. He got a gold Bobblehead as a free give away from the game. He put the Bobblehead down the seat and took a picture of it on the phone. He list

165: 18 Tips To Start and Grow Your eBay Business - Mark Le Vine

Stephanie Inge began selling on eBay in 1999, founded the original eBay sellers group, The Dallas eBaybes & eMales in 2002 and became first EVER college-level eBay instructor. She published Meetup Organizer Step-by-Step Success Guide in 2013 and is the organizer of the annual Sea Commerce Cruise, an at-sea eCommerce conference. Interesting Notes  Stephanie is very passionate about teaching others. She loves the fulfillment she gets from doing it. Her greatest contribution to the eBay Community is organizing local events like Meetup Groups. And she does it for free! She said that organizing a Meetup Group does not take a lot of money. Neither does it take a ton of work. All it takes is dedication. Stephanie never misses a meeting! This year, her Meetup Group, The Dallas eBaybes & eMales, is celebrating its 15th anniversary. She is proud of what she has accomplished. The Dallas eBaybes & eMales meet in a restaurant every month. They have veteran eBay sellers as well as new eBay sellers in the group. From 6 PM to 7 PM, everybody would eat dinner and network. Then from 7 PM to 8:30 PM, a guest speaker or someone from their group who is an expert would give a talk on a certain eBay topic like packing or shipping, or customer service, or photography. They would either have a speaker or a class. Sometimes they would have a virtual speaker at their meetings. In fact, this January, their speaker Atty. Cliff Ennico will present via remote live broadcast. He will talk about the Legal and Tax Updates. Being a member of a Meetup Group gives you a network of 450 people whom you can reach out anytime and ask your questions. Most of the meetup conversation is on a private Facebook group. It is free to become a member of a Meetup Group. Just go to meetup.com and find a Meetup Group near you. On the eBay website, there is also a page where you can find Meetup Groups. In a conference, you learned the most by meeting people from other places. You trade stories, tips and tricks, and other stuff over a meal. With a Meetup, you get to meet local people who do the very same thing you do. But you don't have to pay for the travel expense. You also get to do it every month. Meetup Group covers every topic that would benefit an eBay seller. Today, there are 143 eBay Meetups in the US. And eBay is working closely with all the Meetup organizers. Stephanie continues to sell on eBay. Her niche is shoes for men and women. She started it a year ago, fired up by Tino who is a total Rockstar when it comes to shoes. She also sells handbags. One time, she took a picture of a purse from her death-pile galore. She did a research and asked a member of her Meetup Group to authenticate the purse. The member uses expensive software for authentication. He gave Stephanie a rough estimate of $150 as a price of the purse. Stephanie listed the purse on eBay and cross-posted it on Poshmark for $1200. She ended up selling it to a high powered attorney in downtown New York, City for

164: The First Lady of The eBay Meetup Group - Stephanie Inge

Ari is an entrepreneur, selling on eBay since 2003. What started as a hobby in college, has become a full-time business selling vintage electronics and other discount items. He is a new father and enjoys the flexibility that e-commerce provides. Interesting Notes  Ari started to work in their family's brick and mortar store when he was six years old. He grew up in the age of laserdisc, beta, turntables and all that. Now, he sells vintage items that date back to the 70s, 80s and early 90s. Among those items are turntables, turntable needles, cartridges, VHS, Atari games. He started selling on eBay when he was still in college. He would buy and sell sneakers and it grew up. With his college students' discount, he would also buy computer software and sell it on eBay. But Microsoft frowned upon it which ended that kind of niche. He realized when he moved back home from college that eBay is a viable business. Today, he has taken over the management of their brick and mortar store. It is in the part of a town that is pretty dead. He noticed that retail in the brick and mortar store as well as in the shopping malls are hurting over the years. And eBay is another avenue to sell. So, all the items in the store that are not selling, he sells it on eBay. He also has store employees who do not have much work so he formed a team of six people to run his eBay. He delegates eBay tasks to his team. Each has his own accountable tasks. Someone is in-charge for the shipping and another for the listing. He is in-charged for the hunting of new items to list. He hunts items from warehouses in Laredo. Laredo is the border town where the largest inland port in the US is. It is home to a lot of warehouses and distribution facilities. Owners need their warehouses empty so you can find deals in Laredo. He and his team run his eBay store for two years now. Ari handles more the issues with unhappy customers and returns. He also deals with the PayPal chargeback. All his eBay items have a 30-Day Hassle Free Return policy. If it is something that he cannot repair, he just takes the return and refunds the money. To Ari, Return and Refund is the easiest way to end the issue. You will have upset customers the longer you make it to not to give what they want. He does Free Shipping. He thinks that seeing an extra cost for shipping discourages people. eBay also wants everything fast and free. So, he integrates shipping into the price. The majority of his staff ships out under three tiers - First Class Mail, FedEx, and Priority Mail. Depending on the size of the item, he could give or take the shipping. Something small goes with the First Class Mail which has $2 to $4 on shipping added. Big items go with the Priority Mail which is anywhere from $10 to $20 and $40 to $50 for FedEx. Ari came across a rare red laser disc. He has 200 of those discs. He did not list them all at one time. He would test the market and the price first. Then, he would navigate for some years. He works Monday

163: Which Is Better: Brick & Mortar Store or eBay? - Ari Hofman

Dominic Carone began selling on eBay in 2000 to make some extra money in graduate school. He currently runs the Prime Time Treasure eBay Store, which specializes in the sale of comic books, toys, books, pop culture items, clothes, and all things vintage and collectible. Interesting Notes  Dominic is not a Thrifter. In Central New York, where he lives, thrift stores have higher prices compared to the garage, rummage, and estate sales. So, he stays away from thrift stores. He explained it further on his YouTube video entitled, "Why I Hate Going To Thrift Store". He goes to garage sales, but he gets most of his eBay items from estate sales. Dominic used to go to a Swap Shop in Florida. It is a huge outdoor flea market. Every weekend, he and his wife would go down the aisle. Back then there was no eBay app. So, one has to develop an eye for things. Sometimes they made mistakes. Sometimes they made big scores. That is how he started his reselling business and did it for a few years. Then, he focused on his career outside of reselling. A few years ago, he got back again with reselling comic books. He watched a lot of other YouTubers and started to diversify his content. Now, his eBay store sells pretty much anything that is vintage and collectible. He hits all the categories. Dominic runs his reselling business alone. His wife helps him, now and then, in some aspects to get more sales as he continues to grow and develop. He has two kids who once in a while come with him to the sales. His daughter who is fourteen has developed an eye for things. When she finds something, she will go to another room and bring things back to him. One time, she found a Kitchen Witch with the original tag on it. They got it for 50 cents and sold it within two days for $70. He taught his kids how to negotiate with people and how to negotiate money. One time, his son who is thirteen, go up to someone independently and try to negotiate on some action figures. Most people, especially in the Amazon Prime area expect free shipping. So, Dominic does free shipping on everything. This way, he maximizes the number of potential buyers who are going to see his items. People who search for items to buy would filter out based on whether there is free shipping. Meanwhile, he keeps the Best Offer as an option. He is less flexible with the price in the beginning. But, as time goes on and the items are not sold, he becomes more flexible. Dominic almost has two full-time jobs. He works full-time as a Board Certified Neuro Psychologist in a hospital. That is his regular full-time job. Around that, he tries to work on his reselling business. He is busy every day trying to fit in his regular work, reselling, family time and some other stuff. Now, he is more focus on Q4. He wants to have a lot of items up and listed for the people. One of the unique things that he found and sold on eBay is an old wrestling show poster from 1989. It is an advertisement for the championship match of Ric Flair. He

162: He Hates Thrift Stores! Discover Where He Sources - Dominic Carone

Troy and Veronica are a couple that has decided to chuck the normal lifestyle and own their time rather than chase fancy things. Gone is the rat race, the frustrating commute, the office politics, and the boss overlords. They work when they want, how they want, and where they want. Veronica is the frugal mom with loads of style, and Troy is the stubborn number cruncher. They have two wonderful boys in college, a beautiful house in suburban Denver, and a basement full of inventory. Interesting Notes  Fifteen years ago, Veronica was a stay at home mom with four-year-old and six-year-old sons. She and her best friend used to go to garage sales on Fridays to look for kids toys and clothes. One day, she ran across an ad for a class on how to sell on eBay. She enrolled and after four weeks of classes, she started selling on eBay part-time. Aside from eBay, she also worked a bunch of part-time jobs throughout the years. In 2012, she responded to an ad in Craigslist for a photographer-lister on eBay. She learned that the owner is running eBay as a full-time business. She learned from the owner the different things to sell on eBay and on how to run an eBay business as a whole. Troy, on the other hand, worked as a controller in an oil and gas company. He was earning a six-figure income, but he had to drive one hour one-way to work. He did not like it much and was not enjoying his life. With his financial background, he started running the numbers of Veronica's own eBay. He figured out what will it takes to run a full-time eBay business such as:  1. how many items do they need to list each week; 2. how many items do they need to sell each week; 3. how much will it cost them in inventory to make eBay a full-time job.  As a result, he came up with a conclusion that eBay can be a viable full-time job. They may have less money, but they can have enough to be able to live and enjoy their lives at the same time. It is like a pre-retirement. And so in 2015, they both quit their jobs and do eBay full-time together. Veronica grew up seeing her father going to garage sales and antique stores. She imbibed in her spirit the love of going and finding deals. She never thought that one day she will walk away from her job and go full-time on eBay. Troy never thought that he would leave his corporate job too. He recalls the first suit that he bought to get a full-time corporate accounting job. He bought it at Goodwill for $6 and now 20 years later, he is selling that suit. One of the best things that Troy and Veronica did on their eBay business is hiring a photographer. The photographer takes the photos for their clothing and shoes at his own studio at home. They would drop stuff off to the photographer and pay him per item. For their hard goods, Veronica takes the photos. They ship every day and they do it together. Monday to Thursday is their listing days. Every Friday morning, they hit the garage sales. Their Saturdays are their thrift stores and estate sales route day.

161: Learn How To Prepare To Go Full-Time On eBay - Troy and Veronica Satterfield

Brianna is a former teacher & a competitive figure skater, with over 20 years experience in Ecom. She is an online business developer, serial entrepreneur, marketer, influencer and consultant who has successfully built multiple income streams that have afforded her and her family the freedom of time to travel, explore and live life full throttle on their own terms. Interesting Notes Bri stands 5'9, a tall one for a figure skater. She joined skating competitions from age four to sixteen. In 1996, at the age of fifteen, she started selling. She never had fun as kids often do. Instead, she would go door to door hustling and selling stuff. She did not have enough money to buy stuff to sell. So when she heard about eBay, she liquidated her bedroom. That started her endless journey of having side hustles that sometimes become big. She got a Master’s Degree in Biology and started teaching when she was 21 years old. She was living way beyond her means. Her eBay business started to take off in tandem with her teaching career. The more she was into teaching, the more she continued to grow eBay on the side. In 2010, she got her second Master’s Degree. eBay had been amazing to her too. She made more money from it working as a part-time. She felt burned out teaching and took a calculated risk. She left a stable, tenured career to follow her passion for entrepreneurship. eBay is a big part of Bri's life. When she was starting out, it taught her to be scrappy and resourceful. It made her realize that she can sell anything. It pointed her to the best place to find stuff at rock bottom price, that is, the rummage sale. She once went to a rummage sale where there were luxury men's clothes. She looked around and calculated the stuff to be thousands of dollars. And she got it all for $200 only. She had also gone to Junk Auctions. The Junk Auction is a regular auction that is clearing out its stuff. She and her mom would go and buy the leftover tables for a dollar to learn about products. It does not matter what was in there because she will figure out a way to sell it. She learned a lot that way. eBay also taught Bri the ins and outs of learning how to run a business. One can go quickly from a hobbyist to a business owner. Her average day starts early, around four in the morning. She would go through all her social media accounts, emails, and personal messages. Then, she would work for a couple of hours with her company Design4Dollars. She does her eBay listings every day and places her Amazon orders too. Then, she would attend her meetings with business partners or client calls or consulting sessions. Bri loves what she does because every day is different. She keeps a list of things to do every day as well as a list of floating things. She can cancel or reschedule her meetings to spend time with her daughter. She has the flexibility to make changes anytime she desires or needs to. She sees so many people whose passion lie in different areas. But they can sp

160: The Secret To Having Multiple Businesses Is eBay - Brianna Moller Greene

DeAnn began selling on eBay at the advice of friends. She had adopted a child that has medical issues and that made it hard to hold down a full-time job. She always has enjoyed thrifting and this was a natural fit for her. Interesting Notes  With the prompting of her friends, DeAnn went to the Goodwill Outlet - otherwise known as “The Bins”. She put on a pair of gloves and jump in with the regulars. She filled her cart with stuff that only cost her $12. She sold the stuff on eBay for over $30. That got her hooked. "The Bins" are things that did not sell at the other Goodwill stores. “The Bins” in their area is set up with a big donation drive-thru that weighs 5 pounds. She also gets estate sales items from "the bins". You can put a lot of "the bins" stuff in your cart and it goes by weights. The more you purchase, the more price of your cart goes down. She is now a regular at "the bins" and everyone knows her by name. She made friends with the other regulars too. She would sometimes pack a lunch for them. The regular at "the bins" want the newer things because a lot of them are set up at the flea markets. But DeAnn wants the older things that would sell in other places. For example, the mid-century modern nightgowns. The regulars would pass those by but she would grab those gowns. So when at "the bins", she would look for whatever she thinks would sell. But she is more inclined to look for the Vanity Fair items, those that are made in the USA, or those that have the Union tags. She also learned that Christmas items sell all-year round. So she also looks for them first. Tuesday is her "The Bins" day. She goes first thing in the morning. People would start to peak at around 10 in the morning. She would hear people screaming that a new roll would come out. But she would walk away if "The Bins" are not worth seeing. She thrifts her boxes. The Tuesday Morning stores give her their boxes and bubble wraps. 70% of her eBay items come from "The Bins". The rest is from estate sales. Her items are either priced with specified shipping cost or Best Offer. DeAnn priced her items based on her research. Between the time of "the bins" coming out, she would pick up something and does her research. She would also watch videos while taking pictures. At night, she would look at the Pinterest to see what other people are pinning or what is popular. She was able to sell greeting cards for $30 and that surprised her. It will never cease to amaze her that someone is willing to pay such amount for a greeting card. The weirdest thing she ever bought from "the bins" are Vintage Panties. It almost did not cost her anything to buy those panties. She put it for bidding and sold it for $63. DeAnn does everything by herself. She makes sure that anything that is sold overnight is packed and ready to go. She would drop her stuff at the post office and then hit "The Bins". Her husband sometimes does the shipping for her. Shipping is her biggest failure. She made mistakes

159: She Is Crazy With "The Bins". Discover Why! -  DeAnn Wilcox

Kathleen is an entrepreneurial spirit, selling on eBay since 2003. What started as a hobby to supplement her husband Gary's income, has become a full-time business selling vintage jewelry. She is a new empty-nester and hopes to take advantage of her extra time by taking her business higher. Interesting Notes  Kathleen used to work in the Investment Department of one of the big banks in London. After the 9/11 attack, her job dried up and they moved back to St. Louis, USA. She tried looking for a new job but could not find a job in her field. One time, she went to a garage sale with her sister. Her sister told her that she can make money from the things in the sale. She did not know then what eBay was. Her sister pointed to a couple of Disney collectible plates, 3 pieces for $10. She bought the plates and learned fast how to sell on eBay. She sold the plates for $50 per piece. That is the start of her addiction with eBay. She did eBay part-time then while working in a hospital. She hated being away from home and her kids all the time. When she was able to recreate the income that she is making at the hospital, she quits her job and does eBay full-time. Most of her inventory comes from the estate sales and antique malls around St. Louis. At times when she travels to Denver to visit her daughter, she would shop along the way. She has established a good relationship with estate dealers. If they've got quality items, they know that Kathleen is going to spend money on it. Her store carries 99% of jewelry. Once in a while, she finds something of quality. If she knows what it is, she would reconsider because she thinks that it is silly to leave money on the table. Kathleen focuses on five niche markets in the Jewelry industry. She became familiar with the Native American jewelry. She knows what the buyers are looking for. It usually has to do with the color of the stone and the type of setting. She has good friends in the Jewelry business who taught her how to measure a diamond and convert it to a Karat. She does not claim to know all the four Cs of diamond grading. Her item description does not say anything about the cut or the clarity unless it is an antique. Instead, it is based on what she knows her buyers want and how her items look. There is counterfeit jewelry, especially in the high-end pieces. She had counterfeit Tiffany pieces before. So she studied how to detect counterfeits. Now, she knows what the hallmarks are. She specialized in Victorian Jewelry and a lot of it is not gold hallmarked. She knows what gold looks like underneath 10 times magnification. She could get a good idea if an item is solid gold or gold-filled. If she has doubts about an item and it is inexpensive, she would buy, bring it home, and test it. She has two ways of testing gold jewelry. She gets an 80% success rate as far as looking at items in her hand. But the most accurate test it is to scratch a little bit off on a touchstone and place a small drop of an acid. She can

158: Amazing Story: A Job Loss, An Opportunity, A Jewelry Connoisseur - Kathleen Palmer

Robert started his resale journey at the age of 8 years old that moved quickly into sports cards which gave him the knowledge to get to where he is at now. Today, he is a jack of all trades and expert in making money out of nothing. Interesting Notes  Rob's reselling journey started when he was in grade school. He saw a bunch of kids who were members of a certain school club selling Blow Pops. He told himself that he wanted to do the same even if he is not a club member. With his mom, who had a membership at the Smart & Final Supermarket, he bought three boxes of Blow Pops. He was able to pay his mom and had some money left to buy another box. He kept on turning his profit so he could use the money to play the Star Wars games. Then came along the Garbage Pail Kids, a series of sticker trading cards. He wanted to have it too, but he did not know how to get them. That was when he started doing the hustling. One day when he exchanged a dollar for a quarter, he saw the cards and bought his first pack. He started trading with the other kids. Little by little, it grew up and pushed him into sports cards. The first big collection he got was from his brother in law. It was a big photo album full of cards from 1968 to 1973 of all sports. When he was growing up, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Bo Jackson, are the hottest players. He would trade their cards price for price or player for player. He would trade the 1973 cards for a $5 Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie cards. He attended card shows, started to buy sports promo cards, and became smarter. He would buy the promo cards for 50 cents or $1 each and sell it for $10 or $20 each. The kids in their neighborhood thought that his promo cards are all unique. So, they traded their good cards with his promo cards. Some traded their bike, shoes, and other things. Rob started selling the things traded with him. He would put the bikes and other stuff in his parents' yard sales. Little by little he evolved and moved on to test everything that would sell. He started selling on eBay in 2000. After two years, he closed it down because of a feedback fight. He had more negative feedback than he wished to have because of the fighting. When he closed, he started to get more responsible. He had a full-time job then. He did the same hustles on a part-time basis. He made mistakes along the way. But his knowledge grew. Rob considers himself a master of making money out of nothing. There are so many things that people disregard or throw away. But with Rob, he thinks and sees the worth of money of a thing and resell it. He does not have a particular day dedicated to sourcing out. He can buy one product and gets 20 products out of that one. When online auctions pop up, he will hit those up as long as it is in within his local area. The weirdest thing he ever bought and sold on eBay is false teeth. It was part of the $150 worth of truckload from an estate sale. He put the false teeth on eBay and it flies as high as $80. Another pair is sold f

157: How To Hustle & Grow Your eBay Store - Robert Courtemanche

Kenneth is a full-time eBay seller with 15 years experience. He is the owner/operator of Jakedgames. Interesting Notes  Kenneth inherited his entrepreneurial spirit from his mother. His mother loves to sell crafts and he used to go with her. As a kid, he made bracelets and had a friend sell them. He is 15 years old when he started to sell stuff online. He has first sold on Yahoo Auctions. He sold some Pokemon games that he got for Christmas. Then he stopped for a while and became a collector. When he got married and was going to have his own kid, he started to sell on eBay. He sold his personal stuff and card games like Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Marvel Universe cards from the 90s. Today, he sells sports cards, video games, movies, toys, CDs, comics, cameras and all kinds of nerd collectible stuff. To source his eBay items, he checks on the various Facebook pages and Craigslist. He would look for people in their area who are selling their stuff. He would also visit Wallmart when it has a clearance sale. But, most of his items are from thrift stores and stuff he had acquired over the years. Magic the Gathering started 25 years ago. Kenneth has 70,000 magic cards in his storage unit that needs to be sorted. Those are collections from people he played magic with for 20 years. He knows most of the prices of the cards. He knows what is valuable. He knows if a card is worth more than a dollar. Kenneth does everything in his eBay business. His wife has a full-time job and helps him in sorting the cards. His two teenage kids also help in sorting. He has a temperature-conditioned storage unit where he stores his eBay items. He has a couple of bookshelves for some of his stuff. The great thing about cards is that it can fit in a couple of boxes in a closet. With the cards and comics, he uses a scanner to take pictures. For the bigger items, he uses a camera. The weirdest thing he sold on eBay is a pen from McDonald. He got the pen as a token of having worked at McDonald. Someone bought it from him for $10. When Kenneth had his full-time job, he only does eBay to get extra money. He would work five days and goes to thrift stores on a Saturday. He would list stuff at night or over the weekend. He never sees himself doing eBay full-time. Today, he has 5,000 items for sale in his store; 6,000 items that he needs to scan and list; and 70,000 items that need to be sorted. He subscribes to a Premium Store for his main eBay store. It costs him $59.95 per month with 1500 free listings a month. Once his kids go back to school, Kenneth will start to look for a part-time overnight job to have more income.  Advice, Tips, and Tricks  Kenneth has a designated eBay store where he sells things under $5. He takes full advantage of its free listings by doing auctions for his comic books. He sells anything that he can make money from. He has multiple eBay accounts. Each account has different products from each other. Doing so helps him save money from the listing fees. H

156: Maximize Your Free Listings On eBay And Earn More - Kenneth Morrison

eBay has been Judy Harper's side hustle since December 2002. She started with selling used collectibles, books and clothing and has expanded into new handcrafted items. Interesting Notes  Everything started when Judy was cleaning their house one time. At that time, it was not practical to have a garage sale, so she listed the items on eBay. When she ran out of things to sell she started grabbing things from her kids' rooms. To increase her inventory, she started going to the estate sales. Later on, she makes her own items to sell. She was a sewing teacher in a fabric store where she did all kinds of other things. She made little things and started selling it on eBay. She learned to sew as a child. She took professional sewing classes in college. When she worked in a fabric store, she took more instructional classes. Her sewing skills grew over the years. Judy has a full-time job now. eBay is only her second job - a side hustle. She is comfortable having a job and a side hustle. She does not have any help in running her eBay business. She puts 10 hours a week doing eBay and it brings her the extra money she needs. She contracts with somebody to do her accounting and to repair her sewing machine. She keeps eBay manageable. She sells every day during the week. She ships to make sure that everything goes out in time. Every Saturday she makes her crafts and can knock out 30 to 40 items. She would do first the special requests. After which, she would move on to making items that would run out of her inventory first. Most of her ideas for her crafts started off with somebody saying "this would be a good idea" and then she tries it. At other times, she gets inspiration from the people who made special requests from her. This week, someone requested her to make a special need handicapped bibs made of towels. One of the interesting requests she had was last week. She was making handicapped bibs for the handicapped people. The buyer requested if Judy can make some that are water-proof. Luckily, Judy found a material suited and sewed it into the front of each bib. If it works Judy might add it to her inventory too. She also makes sleep masks. It started when she met her husband 10 years ago. Her husband goes to sleep with sleep masks on. Upon the request of her husband, she made him a sleep mask made of something comfortable like a blanket. Since then she has made sleep masks and sells them on eBay. She also makes and sells towel beach wraps. She sells them in the Spring before everybody goes on a beach vacation. She also sells a bunch in the Fall before everybody moves into their college dorms. She doesn't sell them in the rest of the year. A few years ago, scarves were in. She had a whole section in her store with hundred of scarves in different fabrics and designs. It did well but went out of fashion. She stopped making them and closed the section down. She still buys clothes that looks good at the local Goodwill. She still buys books at the Estate Sales

155: A Game Changing Way To Source and Sell on eBay: Create Your Own Crafts - Judy Harper

Bill grew up racing Motocross in New York. In 2008, he suffered a spinal cord injury during a race. The accident marked a turning point in his life, catalyzing his eBay career selling Powersports Parts and eventually winning the Global Business Category at the 2018 eBay Shine Awards. Interesting Notes  Bill grew up in a rural area and possessed a good business sense. His grandfather is a typical American Picker who loves to buy and sell stuff. As a little kid, he was always with his grandfather. Together, they buy and sell as a hobby. That is how Bill got his knowledge about ATVs and dirt bikes. His times with his grandfather formed his business acumen. In 2008, he suffered a severe spinal cord injury, which confined him to a wheelchair. The adversity leaves him with no option but to have a business. He did not suffer a brain injury. And with a sound functioning mind, he believed that he could work on a business. He saw eBay as one of the avenues where he could still be productive. Being a fan of a Motocross enthusiast, he got an obsession with it from the early 90s until now. He knows most of the machines that they have made. He can identify the parts. He knows what are the things to look for and sell. So, he decided to work in a field where he is comfortable and in control. He believes that it is to his advantage if knows the market. In 2010, Bill started selling on eBay. His eBay store is a modern version of the auto sell junkyard. He used his passion for Motocross to sell ATV parts, Dirt Bikes and more. One thing he learned from selling on eBay is that if you don't have a storage for your stuff, you have to be selling it. His ingrained mind thinks that everywhere he looks, he sees money sitting rather than junks. Bill stores his eBay stuff in a building which is once a barn. He has shelves inside the building. He has two full-time employees and one part-time. He involves his employees in every aspect of his eBay business. Everything that they sell is one of a kind item. So, they assign SKU numbers, tags and labels on the box and shelved the items that way. Some items have many small pieces within. They put the pieces in a bag and have everything in the box together. They use padded envelopes and flat boxes for their shipment. With some of the used items, the condition varies a lot. They can have two functioning parts but their cosmetics vary enough. So they create unique listings so that their customers know exactly what they are buying. Their customer based are more of Do It Yourself persons. They are the ones who would pay a lower price and do it themselves because they know the mechanical side. On a normal day, Bill would sit on his computer, goes to a lot of auctions online, and see what is coming up. Then he would make his purchases online. Then he and his team would pick the stuff up. If the stuff is dirty, they would wash it and bring it to the shop. Then they will begin to disassemble the parts. If the parts need further cleaning the

154: 2018 eBay SHINE Awards Winner, Global Business Category - Bill Ingersoll

John has been selling postcards on eBay since early 1999. He's a part-time eBayer and a one-man operation. He has over 18,000 active postcard listings and grosses about $1,000 a week. He'll retire from his real job in about two years and will double his listings. He has a YouTube channel called Popeyes Postcards where he educates people about the profitability of selling postcards. Interesting Notes  John got the nickname Popeye when he got out of the navy and went to college. He started collecting Popeye stuff. When eBay came along, he sold his Popeye stuff on eBay. Then he started going to live auctions to see what other things can he buy and sell. He bought box lots of junks and paper stuff. One of the boxes he got had a stack of postcards. Postcards opened a wide door to John. He realized that postcards take little space to store and are easy to list, pack and ship. He pays only in pennies but makes a thousand percentage increase on the return of investment. So he made it his niche. Now, he sells 6,000+ postcards a year with an average selling price of $10 per card. He operates in a 12 x 12 office with a quarter of a million cards surrounding him. His postcards date back to 1890s. Older cards are not always valuable. Sometimes, the cards from the 50s and 60s can make a hundred dollars. The back of the cards helps sell the front of the cards. There are postcards that have secret messages, codes, or stamps in the back that help it sell. Postcards are cheap to buy. When he buys postcards, he tries to stay under 25 cents per postcard. Sometimes he would pay up to a dollar. A month ago, he bought 10,000 postcards for $600 or 6 cents each. It was a collection of postcards in New Jersey. He sold one postcard lot for $125. John does a lot of sourcing from other eBay sellers who don't know that much about postcards. Two months ago, he saw a postcard lot from an eBay seller. He pulled up the listings. It showed real photo postcards of the Filipino native warriors from the 1930s. He looked it up while the auction is still going on. He found out that the postcards are sold for $30 to $40. He bought the lot, 150 postcards in all, for 23 cents per postcard. He sold 9 Filipino native warriors for $575. He also goes to antique malls and shows to source postcards. A couple of weeks ago, he went to a big antique show called the DC Big Flea. This week, he would go to a postcard show on the Eastern Shore in Maryland. He spends an entire day sourcing from older postcard sellers in the postcard shows. These sellers do not how to list on eBay. He would buy the postcards from them for $2 or $3 and list it on eBay for $20 or $30. One of the postcards he packed before this interview is going to an insurance company. The postcard is the old hotel where the insurance company is holding their office. The weirdest postcard he has sold is a real photo of an adult magazine from adult movies in 1920. Most valuable postcards are Hong Kong and other Asian countries. He ships

153: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Selling Postcards On eBay - John Miller

Melody started selling part-time on eBay in 2013 while still employed as a receptionist. Although a bit sooner than planned, in 2016 she left her office job to sell full-time on eBay and Facebook. Melody’s passion and main selling focus is vintage costume jewelry. She has plans to begin offering local group and individual eBay Selling Classes later this year. Interesting Notes  Melody's husband had sold on eBay before. Within a couple of months of their marriage in 2015, they decided to get started together on eBay, part-time. They started out selling books. They wanted to add more so they sell dollhouse miniatures and a lot of variety of things. Two years ago, they went on a vacation. They normally use their vacation as a time to reflect and plan for the future. On that vacation, they made plans that Melody will go full-time on eBay by the year 2017. Their plans were changed a bit. On the first day at the office after their vacation, Melody was called to her manager's office. The manager informed her that her position was eliminated. Melody always loved jewelry and made it her niche. She has two stores. The bigger one which she manages is called Melodys Uniquely You. Her husband manages the other one which is a bit hodgepodge. She transitions all the non-jewelry things to the other store. She loves to go to garage sales during summer. She gets a lot of jewelry at the garage sales. She also goes to auction and estate sales. She started buying estates. She put a word out there that she is looking for estate jewelry. People who are getting rid of their jewelry started to contact her. Her working hours depends on what she plans to do on the day. But most of her days, she starts on shipping. As much as she wants to go sourcing and shopping, she cannot because she has a lot of inventory. Her husband has a full-time job but he sometimes goes with Melody to source. He also helps Melody takes the packages to the post office. He also does listings now and then. She uses a digital camera and a lightbox in taking pictures. She takes several pictures at a time. If she goes garage selling, she tries to take all those pictures within a reasonable amount of time. Then she will sit down and list. Melody learned everything about costume jewelry by selling. She immersed herself in researching. She owned 50 books about vintage jewelry and use it all for her references. In costume jewelry, a lot of pieces has a signature on the back. She researched her pieces before she lists them. She knows a lot of signatures now. Still, she watches out for the fake pieces. As far as precious metals and precious stones, she does not have to watch because it is costume jewelry that she sells most. Melody thinks ahead of time what boxes she is going to need for her shipment and keeps stock of it. She also takes advantage of the free shipping supplies eBay gives to the sellers. Jewelry is so easy to pack and ship. It is one of the reasons why she chose jewelry as her niche. It tak

152: How To Sell Costume Jewelry On eBay - Melody Purdy

Liz has been selling on eBay since 2002. She sold part-time, on and off, until she retired from the Air Force at the end of 2016. She has been selling full-time and growing her eBay store ever since. Interesting Notes  Liz calls herself a Jack of all Trades when she was working in the Air Force. She sold part-time on eBay, on and off. Two years before she retired, she ramped up her game and was selling well. She followed eBay very close even when she was a part-time seller. She treated eBay like it is a full-time job. She made a goal for herself that if she could hit her target in four months she will retire from her job. She would come home at night and do her eBay works. She would ship on her way in the morning. She would do her listings on the weekend. Her family supported her all throughout. When she retired, she looked for another job. She was confident that she qualifies for the job posts. But looking at the pay, she realized that she can make the salary working in their downstairs for eBay. With that, she decided to make eBay full-time. Liz lives in Colorado, thus her eBay store is Colorado ReWorn. She is doing a lot of upcycling with recycled clothing through the thrift stores. She is also into retail arbitrage. She sells all year round because she sells internationally. She is very fortunate to live in a place where she can do both thrifting and retail arbitrage. She enjoys both and does well in it. She sources depending on her inventory. If her inventory is running low on dresses, she will go straight to the dresses section of a thrift store. If she is getting ready for Spring and Summer, she will go straight to the skirt and sleeveless tops. There are certain things that she holds back when listing. She will not list new boots in May. Her experience taught her that those things do better in October and November. The weirdest thing she ever bought is a kids onesie that had a marijuana leaf on it. She bought it to get it off the shelf. But she thinks that she won't be selling that kind of thing. Liz has over a thousand listings and over 400 items not yet listed. She does her eBay business on their basement. She uses a big bedroom for her office. It is also where she keeps her listed inventory. The guest bedroom is also full of listed inventory. She keeps her unlisted inventory in a storage room. She uses clear bins so she can see the items right through it. She sorts her items by season. Right now, she has two bins of snow boots and bins full of kids winter coats. With the other stuff, she will sort by Men Shirts, Women Shirts or Skirts. She takes pictures of all the same item at one time. Doing so saves her time. It is easy to picture and easy to list. Back when Liz is doing eBay part-time, she called herself a tote-tote seller. That is, she has one tote for unlisted and another one for listed. As she grows, she added her totes. Now, she has a stock room. She has a filing system. She has all her shirts hang by brand. All her shoes are

151: How To Manage Your eBay Income - Liz O'Kane

Craig Cody is a Certified Tax Coach, Certified Public Accountant, Business Owner and former New York City Police Officer with 17 years experience on the Force. In addition to being a Certified Public Accountant for the past 15 years, he is also a Certified Tax Coach. As a Certified Tax Coach, Craig belongs to a select group of tax practitioners throughout the country who undergo extensive training and continued education on various tax planning techniques and strategies to become, as well as remain, certified. With this organization, Craig has co-authored an Amazon best-selling book, Secrets of a Tax-Free Life. Interesting Notes  Craig is an Economics major. He stopped in his third year and worked as a cop for 17 years, following his dad who was a Police Officer. He went back to college, got his accounting degree, and worked for an international firm. He retired from the corporate and started his own firm - the Craig Cody and Company. Now, as a Certified Tax Coach, Craig helps business owners keep more of what they are making. He looks for ways where business owners could legally reduce their tax liability. His ultimate goal for the business owners is to create a saving of $15,000 to $20,000 a year. To achieve his ultimate goal, he takes time to communicate with the business owners and creates a Tax Plan. He makes sure that business owners have all the right documentation and know what to do. He can work with entry-level clients - those business owners that are making $200 to $500 a month. He sees that he can save them some serious money. He works with clients on a monthly basis. He conducts a regular meeting via Skype or Zoom or any online communication tool. He would go over the client's Profit and Loss statement. He makes sure that clients are doing the things that they talked about and planned. Craig works with clients throughout the United States. His farthest client is Oregon. He does not encounter issues in tax rules. Federal rules don't change. The State rules differ a little bit, but for the most part, it is not a big variation. Before working with Craig, you have to have a conversation with him for an initial assessment of your business. He would ask for your last year's Tax Return and your current year Profit and Loss Statement. He will review and do some analysis. Then, he will give you recommendations on what to do to save an extra dollar as a tax deduction. You only pay once you decide to do a Tax Plan. Craig will set up a Tax Plan so that the business owners could do what makes them money, which is to sell. His services are 100% refundable. In his seven years of experience, no one has ever asked for their money back. At the end of the year, he does a before and after with his clients. He shows them how much their tax liability would have been if they did not do what they did. He shows them their current tax liability because they do the things as planned. Craig finds his work exciting. He feels gratified when he could sit down and

150: The Secret To Save More From What You Make On eBay - Craig Cody, CPA

Jewel started back in 2003 selling commissioned motorcycle parts for a friend, then opened a store selling vintage items while working full time. Now living in the US, she sells full time & found a niche focusing on vintage toys. She considers it selling childhood memories and making new ones. Interesting Notes  Jewel was a preschool teacher in Canada. When she moved to the US, she started selling any items that are vintage, from the 50s to the present. The toys that she sells now come from the 60s to 80s. At first, she did not want to get into eBay. She only did it as a favor to a friend and sold something that she had no knowledge of. As her children were growing, she started listing dollar signs on all their toys. Instead of throwing old toys out, she sold it on eBay and made some money. That is how she started her Plush Toys niche. Toys are where her heart is. She can tell what year the toys are made by what their eyes are made of, by the tags, and by the country where it is made. Marshall is more into old knives and old watches. Jewel and Marshall work together in their eBay store. They go shopping together but Jewel does most of the work because Marshall still has a day job. Today, most people are buying from their phones more than from their computer. Things change so fast that sellers need to simplify things for the buyers. Sellers need to make buyers' shopping an enjoyable thing. Jewel categorized her plush toys by what they are - group into the same movie or the same brand. Grouping is a great way to give someone a very good deal. Jewel and Marshall give deals to preschools and daycare, candy bar companies, and the like. Jewel sometimes finds eBay changes a little bit daunting because she has a huge inventory. But she understands that changes are part of running a business. One only has to be flexible. One has to go with the way the market is going. Jewel and Marshall go sourcing together. They go to second-hand stores, Goodwill, garage sales, flea markets, and estate sales. Marshall's forte is in price bargaining and in getting vendors to sell items in bulk. Marshall built a warehouse for Jewel's stuff. They have a thousand storage bins and tubs. Their bins are all-numbered. Jewel keeps a hard copy of her inventory list. The list includes what bin the items are and the location of the bins. They also have huge heavy duty bags full of stuff that is not yet processed. It took them three years to put systems in place. Jewel's secret to a 100% positive feedback on her eBay store is being completely honest to her buyers. A few years ago, someone in her family passed away. Though she got herself absorb in work, she was not storing her online items properly. There were sales and she could not find the items. One buyer became so upset. Jewel explained her situation and the buyer was so kind and understanding. One of their interesting sales is an old vintage nun doll with a cracked face and looked creepy. Kat Von D, a tattoo artist feature

Get Started

Download the App