eBay Advice Needed

Some great advice here. Have her sell what she knows.

Here is almost a full proof, profitable way to make money but it will take SOME WORK (some people hate that ).

For example, I know/collect sports cards. When I get in the mood what I do is buy collections on eBay and sometime Craigslist (raely on CL though). For example, I might buy a complete set of 1973 Topps Baseball Cards for around $500-$600. Once I get the item, Ill offer it for $900 to $1000 (depending on condition) on Craigslist for a quick flip. Every once in a while Ill get a bite and make a quick profit. Most of the time it's low ball offers that I dont want even though I would make a profit of $100-$200. I know I can do better back on eBay.

Ok, now here is where the work comes in. I scan all 600+ cards individually. Then I list them using Turbo Lister (there are other free listing tools out there for bulk listing as well). This whole process takes me 8-10 hours. I usually do it over 2 or 3 days. I have a template and a good scanner that I use to speed up the process a bit but really, it does take some time and is very boring work. When I first did this, it would take me almost 20 hours but after I get a good template and a scanner, I really cut the time down dramatically. The more you do it, the better and faster you will get.

I then list everything as a 7 day auction starting at $.99 to save on listing fees. While some of the cards will go for up to $100 each (ie. The Mike Schmidt RC) depending on condition. A lot will sell for $.99. On something like this example, I can figure that the average sale price per all 600+ cards will be right around $2.45 each (once again, I know my market).

I ship for $3.50 and offer combined shipping so the MAX my clients pay on shipping is $3.50, no matter if they buy 1 or 100 cards. The $3.50 is a bit high for 1 card but I want to encourage people to buy more cards so I always link to "My Other Items" within the auction listing.

On this example, after FVF, listing and paypal fees, shipping costs, supllies, etc. Ill end up profiting anywhere from $300 all the way up to $650. Even on the low end of $300 for 10 hours of work, you are still making 30 bucks per hour (before the time it takes to ship which isnt too bad since most people buy multiple cards. Usually 2.5 hours topps).

The cards I dont sell (yes there are some) I either throw into my eBay Store or I put them all in a lot and sell them that way the next week.

Im actually in the process now on waiting for a few collections/sets to arrive so I can list them as I want/need some extra money for XMAS this year (buying wifey a cruise vacation).

So in a nutshell, like Fluff said, find something that she really knows about to minimize the risk. Since she has some time on her hands, I think buying lots and breaking them up could work for her. Will she get rich doing this? Probably not but she can support herself pretty well with some hard work.

Hope this helps,

Rich