Listing On eBay Setting Goals For Store Update May 31 2016

The month of May is almost over, in a few hours June and summer will be here in chilly Minnesota.

My eBay store has been quieter this month than it was a year ago this month.

We now have 1834 items up for sale.  My goal is to hit 1900 items before the end of next week.

Today I am working on vintage postcards.

Great for collectors or maybe to add to family history books.

Example my grandparents lived here in this time period.

Today I am visiting Texas in postcards. Here are two postcards that will be added later today.

Titche Goettinger Department Store Dallas Texas unused linen postcard from the 1940s

Light ends unit and storage tanks at Baytown Refinery Humble Oil a Refining Company.
States they gave free tours at 2 pm daily.  Another nice linen postcard.

Selling on eBay No Secrets Just Hard Work DAILY

I belong to several face book groups of eBay sellers. Common complaint is I am not selling or why is it so slow. All eBay's fault of course.

My sales are not as great as I would like but I do recognize some of the reasons.  It is my doing not eBay doing.  For the winter we are living in Las Vegas and only brought stock that would fit in our van. So when we return home we can put back on eBay the stock that was removed.
Our inventory will increase.  Another reason sales are small is that I specialize in vintage paper and sales dollar amounts are small.

What I can do and am doing the majority of the time is to list 10 listings a day.
Share these listings on Facebook, Pinterest and twitter.  When I do this I do see my listings get more views.
Another thing that I am doing is putting my store on sale a couple of times a month for 1 or 2 days. No longer we want the buyer to have a sense of urgency.
I can also learn new categories to sell in that may have a higher dollar amount.

Are you selling on eBay?  Do you have any ideas to share with us?

Some postcards I have sold recently.

Selling On eBay Adding Income To Pay Down Debt Or Build Up Savings

eBay....  A great way to add to your income  

The extra income can help pay off debt or to build up your savings account. 

We have been selling on eBay for over 15 years. 

I have found that people will buy just about anything. 

It is easy to sell on eBay and setting up your account is free. 

When deciding what to sell just check out their website and do your research.

Some things I sell on a regular basis are vintage photos, postcards, jewelry 

and barbie doll items. 

Buyers are willing to buy just about anything.  I save box tops for education 

and Campbell soup education labels Make sure they have not expired.

I also save and sell my used ink cartridges to sell.  

They also will buy clean toilet paper and paper 

towel rolls and used medicine bottles that are great for crafters

These I not sold as of yet but I am saving my medicine bottles.

Take some time over the next few days and search eBay for odd things that sell.

You never know what you may be able to make some money off.

Thanks for stopping by and happy selling.

Making Money Monday On eBay Selling Vintage Barbie Dolls

This last couple weeks we have been busy selling on eBay. Postcards, Photos and Barbie Items.
I am not a real expert on Barbies but I can identify a vintage barbie doll.
This last week or so I have sold three vintage barbie dolls.

Another Barbie we sold this month was a 1960s brunette Barbie with bendable knees. She sold for $24.95 and the new owner is very happy with her.

The last barbie was a real treasure that I had been holding on to for a couple years. This month I thought was a perfect time to sell her on eBay.  She is a 1958 Blond Pony Tail Barbie that we sold after several bids to $150.50.

The last to sell was a a 1960s Twist and Turn Barbie Doll. I listed at $14.95 and it was bid up to $23.50. Shipped out today for the new owner.

As of today the 14th of March we have sold $330.21 on eBay and have passed February sales.

Will be keeping busy and hope to have a good month of sales.

Thanks for stopping by Grace

Selling On Ebay Challenge February Week 1 2016

Week 1 of February 2016 is almost at an end. We are in Nevada rather than home state of Minnesota over the winter.  I brought a van load of my paper items to sell on eBay and have been attempting to list every day. My goal is 10 a day but there are some days I do not seem to get any listed.
I am at 1500 items in my store with a large majority of my items being vintage photos and postcards.

This month I am going to work at listing items other than paper most days.  I do well with vintage Barbie items and do have a few to still get up for sale.

Yesterday I went to my first Goodwill Clearance store. Was not as big as I hoped and when a new row of bins came out the women became grabby. They would grab  a pile and throw in their cart or tub.  Lowell found a interest book for 50 cents. Will take a while to sell but started out at $29.99.

I picked out a few items to try out at a cost of $5.40.  I do not sell clothes usually but want to branch out more into that category.

This morning I have rinsed out 3 intimate items and I am putting up for auction tonight.  Nothing valuable but some would be some addition to sales. Will continue to list through the day.

I hope to add a total of 400 items to my store this month. So far I have added 37 items to my store as of last night.  Eight were barbie items rest were postcards. Tonight we will add some clothing items.

Sales for February 2015 was only $265 my goal is to double that.

Hopefully by the end of the month my store will have grown and my sales will have increased. While we are away from home are sales to decrease.

So far for February I have sold 8 items for a total of $38.49. With increased listing will come increased sales, or so I hope.

The last two sales are a old barrel key and pieces from a Star Wars Monopoly game. Both traveled from Minnesota and have been in my store since June 2015.

Thanks for taking time to read. See you soon.

Selling On eBay 3rd week of January 2016

Sales are slow but are happening.

We are sitting in Nevada selling on eBay. I brought a lot of my stock with us in our stow and go van.

I specialize in vintage paper, books, collectibles , barbies and some jewelry. We have been out to the

thrift stores and the auctions a couple of times but since I have so much stock that is not listed it is

hard to buying any thing unless we know we can sell something fast and for a good profit.

My goal is to increase my sales to work at paying off the van as soon as possible.

We have 1415 items for sale and have surpassed January 2015. sales of  $293

I attempt to list 5 to 10 items daily. Once listed  send to face book public , tweet and pin.

I feel this does help draw some customers to our store on eBay.

Check back later to see how we finished January 2016 and maybe take a minute and look at my

eBay store.  You may find a treasure. Grace

Buying Clothing At A Thrift Store ~ Balancing Your Budget Shop Used Rather Than New

I have decided to add selling good used clothing to my eBay store. So off to the thrift store I went.
We were on a small road trip to spend time with some of the family and on the way there are 6 different thrift stores.
This is some of the tips I will share with you.
1. If they have a frequent customer card get one and remember to get it punched when shopping. This month I have received $20.00 in free merchandise at two different stores.
2. Most of the store will have a certain color tag on sale, look for clothes with that tag to save you money.
3. Be sure to check out the clothing carefully before buying. Stains , holes and it does not go into my shopping card.
4. If you are going to resell on the Internet research it is important to learn what brands are worth buying and what you should pay to make a profit. I only buy what is on sale unless it is a treasure.
I am just starting this new niche to sell on eBay and have joined a face book group to learn from those who have been doing clothing for some time. And as a bonus I am finding out about other treasures that can be found that can be worth some nice money.

Here are a few of the items I have found this last weekend.
Jesse James work shirt great condition. Ralph Lauren and last is Tommy Bahama  ladies Hawaiian style blouse.


Great treasures can be found for a few dollars. Give your budget a break and check out your local thrift store to see what is waiting for you.
Thanks for stopping by. Grace

ARE YOU A HORDER OF STUFF Do You Think It Is Time To Start Downsizing?

ARE YOU A HORDER OF STUFF Do You Think It Is Time To Start Downsizing? Hubby and I have been asked to help a church member rid them selves of the items in their apartment.  She is about 80 and moved into an assisted living home. She loved to entertain and has about 4 sets of dishes at least. I know of a daily set of silverware and then there was the good silver ware. There is 2 china hutchs full of small pretty items and nice serving dishes. The cupboards are full of more dishes and pots and pans. There is a lot of furniture in this small apartment and the walls have nice art work. Nothing real expensive but nice works. The closets are full of clothes and hats.
We were asked if we wanted to help her sell her items. There are no estate sales allowed in the building so everything would have to be packed up and moved out.
Hubby and I decided it was to much work for us especially with the furniture needing to be dealt with.
We found a friend who deals with items like this. They will make a bid today and part of the deal will be to clean out the apartment of everything.
Our church friend asked us to deal with the silverware and we got a price on that for her.
As I walk into our apartment I look around at everything we have. Alot of it is items we buy to resell. Problem is it takes time to resell some of the items I buy and they pile up around here.
This month with the holidays I have held back on buying alot of stuff to resell. We went to a church sale and bought a bag of books for $5.00. We were fussy with what went into the bag. I have the civil war books up for sale on eBay and have a vintage Childrens Bible History book for sale on ebay with a bid already. My plan is to continue being careful with what I buy and to try to concentrate getting items up for sale as soon as possible.
Yesterday I took several collectible ashtrays to the antique store to resell plus a vintage child's sewing machine in box that I had bought several months ago.
Take a moment and look around your own home. Is it time to start to parting with your extra things?
This time of the year may not be the perfect time to start but it could go on your list of goals for the next year.
Thanks for stopping by. Grace

HUNTING For TREASURES Every Day ~ Selling Antique Medical QUACK Books on eBay

While visiting one of our regular haunts I spotted a pair of old books sitting on a shelf. Closer look told me they were antique medical books with a lot of false/ quack remedies. Soon they were walking out the door with me after putting down my $10.00 cash.

Once home I did research and found some similar to them on the Internet for sale. Both Amazon and eBay had them for sale auction and at buy it now prices. The ones I saw were one book only while mine were published in a two book set. Most were selling in that $35.00 to $80.00 price.

Rather than offer at a buy it now price I decided to put up for auction starting price of $24.95. To my pleasure they ended up selling for $75.00 plus shipping. 

Nice profit for a pair of antique books, but they will give the buyer hours of fun reading.

How are your sales going this Christmas season? We have been busy selling on eBay and Amazon and the antique store is even doing good at this time.

Grace

VINTAGE COOK BOOKS BOUGHT AT ESTATE AUCTION

Last Monday we were at a local auction house about 150 miles away from home. Weekend spent with family and friends ended at the auction house on Monday night. 450 items for bid during the night. Lots of sport cards, signed foot balls, glass ware and art work. I had my eye on a few items but they all sold for more than I was willing to pay. I have to buy right to be able to sell so I have my limits of purchase price. Last on my list of things I wanted was 5 boxes of vintage books, mainly vintage cook books. Cook books from 1890s to mid 1950s.  My buying price was some where between $60.00 up to $100 for these boxes. There is a 15 percent buying premium added to purchase price. It was between me and some dude at the end. His bid was $95.00 I went to $100.00 and going going gone, no sound from the other side of the room and the boxes were mine.
Mine, mine all mine. Next move was to pay for them before leaving with my pay pal card. Sign for my purchase and I will get 1 percent back from pay pal. Not alot of money but my belief is NEVER UNDER ESTIMATE THE VALUE OF A SMALL AMOUNT OF MONEY.
I spent Thursday and Friday afternoon listing the first ten cookbooks from these boxes and sent them up Friday night on eBay for auction.
I shared the titles on my For the Love of Junk blog site last night. Take a peek if you like. I believe my $115.00 was a good investment but I have a lot of work ahead of me.
Do you buy and sell on eBay, Amazon or Etsy. My second income comes from all three sites with eBay being number 1 in sales right now.

Sitting on my desk is the next 5 to list on eBay and send up tonight. I love the cover art on this book.

 

 

 

 

Well back to listing my cook books, have a great weekend and happy hunting for treasures for your collection or to resell. Grace

Weird Wednesday ~ Living Within Our Means 10/17/12

I want to be consider weird, I want to live within my means. I want to be able to pay cash for what I want or need for my family.

There are three ways to Live With In Your Means...

1. Increase your income

2. Sell some assets
3.Decrease your expenses

Pretty hard to decrease the expenses, every thing is real tight as it.  Hubby and I are always on the hunt to buy items to resell on eBay, etsy, and Amazon.
I would like to add an extra $850 a month to the income or $213.00 a week. This would be money to travel to twin cities more to hunt, to put money away to travel next winter, additional weekly money to add to entertainment and to have a budget for clothing. This is not in our base budget because of tightness.
Monday night we were at an auction and I bought 5 boxes of vintage cook books and recipe books. Invested $115.00 from pay pal account.  This week I will be working to see how may I can list on eBay to sell.

Last week we had a fairly good week on eBay. One thing I sold was a great 1970s vintage men's suit as a buy it now for $60.00 before expenses.  All the money from sales last went to buy the cook books at auction and to travel to cities to see family and friends. And on the way home we stopped at three thrift stores and found some great books for resell. 

 

Well time to get busy listing some of those cookbooks on eBay for auction.   Thanks for stopping by to visit. Do you sell on the Internet to add to your income. Grace

 

SELLING ON EBAY VINTAGE KEYS

Selling keys on eBay can be profitable if you can find enough. I am talking about just ordinary keys. Not the vintage skeleton and barrel keys, those can be even better.

At an auction a couple of weeks ago I bought a large jar full of keys for $10.00. Last night they sold for $81.00 sale price.
Perfect for crafting or what ever the buyer wants. I was happy with the price as was hubby. Next time he will be pointing out a large jar of keys instead of saying huh.

Have a great day, what are you selling on eBay that surprises you.?

HUNTING FOR COOKBOOKS AT WEEKEND SALES

I love to hunt for items to resell on the Internet. One of my favorite items to look for is cookbooks.

This weekend these are the four I picked out to resell. They were found at a church book sale.

We found a Betty Crocker Cookbook , Rachael Ray, Fanny Farmer Cookbook and a White House Cookbook.

 

But until they sell they are mine to read and enjoy. Thanks for stopping by to visit.

Recently Found at Garage Sale and Sold On eBay Vintage Handmade Quilt

Recently found at a garage sale and sold on eBay is this pretty vintage hand made quilt.  Less than a month ago hubby and I were out on garage sale rounds and I came across this pretty quilt. Seller told me her aunt had bought it years ago at an estate sale. Looking at it I could tell that it had hardly been used and was in beautiful shape.

I bought it for $5.00 and tried to sell on auction twice with no luck.  Last night it ended for the second time with no sale.  Shortly later I received an email from a buyer that had missed out on it.  Power outage he says.  This morning I relisted it at my asking price of $29.99 buy it now and emailed him.

Shortly later I had a sale and it was paid for with pay pal. Off it goes to Mississippi tomorrow morning.

You just never know what you will find in a small garage on a Saturday afternoon.

How is your treasure hunting going?  Thanks for stopping by to visit, hope to see you again real  soon. Grace

eBay Weekend Follow Up 3/26/12

The weekend on eBay was pretty quite. We sold a couple of books and some vintage snap shot photos. 

Sold a nice set of vintage Cinar jewelry but buyer is from Italy.  She has great feedback but I will not ship jewelry over seas unless it is priority mail. This is written in my listing. Hopefully she will pay so I can mail out.
Looking at them at first I thought they were nothing special and almost brought out to local auction. Thank goodness I looked at back of earrings, saw the name Cinar and checked them out on eBay. They sold first time out for $24.95.

Now just waiting for payment.

I have been doing good on vintage snap shots lately.  It is hard to believe what people want and will buy. Snapshots of funerals is popular.  I bought a vintage album at a local auction and there were a few photos there of the gentleman in his coffin and at the cemetery.  I have stretched these photos out to four auctions and have made about $20.00 to $30.00 on this $3.00 purchase. Pictures of cute children usually sell also.

How are your eBay or etsy sales going. Etsy was quite this weekend but I have very little for sale there.  Hope that you have a great week with sales where ever you sell.

eBay Sales Update Lady Shoes and Vintage Snapshot Photos

Last night I sold the cute red pair of shoes pictured in last posting for $13.50
Since it is FREE listing on eBay for store sellers I will give unsold shoes another try.

I have recently signed up for etsy to sell items also. I am starting out with vintage photos on both ebay and etsy. So far eBay is winning out with sales. Last night I sold three photos on eBay before they could sell on etsy. Each of them selling for $5.00.

RECENT LOCAL AUCTION SALE FINDS ~ Shoes Shoes and More Shoes To Sell On eBay

Just a week or so ago at one of the local auctions I found some women's shoes new or almost new in the box.  I have put them up for auction twice now and no sales. Right now I can list for free on eBay because we have a store. Once the free listings are over if not sold I will stick in my store.

Cute shoes just need the right buyers for them.

So that is a few things I have bough at our local auction house. Hope that your finds are profitable

LETS INCREASE OUR INCOME BY A $1000 A MONTH THAT IS A GRAND A MONTH

If you read my blog you already know hubby and I are semi retired. The semi part is we are always looking for ways to make money on the side to suppliment our income. After all social security and pension plans do not go as far as you would hope. Lesson learned we did not save enough while young so I hope all of you save more and spend less on your journey to retirement.

This morning while reading some of my favorite blogs I saw that Mom's Plans had written a post on making an extra $1,000 a month. After reading further I see that she along with two other bloggers are starting a new site on making a GRAND a month. I look forward to postings to see what others are up to.

Hubby and earn extra money every month buying and selling items on eBay, Amazon and in our booths at the Antique stores. Of course there is the costs to do business this way. Cost of goods , fees at the Internet sites and rental fees at the antique stores. The real test is when hubby does end of the year books so we can file our taxes on this income.

And of course I make a little money with my blogs. Little is the key word but I only do this as a hobby and not full time as others.

My goal is to increase our income by $1,000 a month after all the fees and costs this next year. Time will tell as the months go buy. I hope to share some of this information with you in the months to come.

Antique store #2 is doing better than Antique store #1, but in store #2 I have items out on some shelfs and floor space plus a locked case. Antique store #1 is a locked case only. I do believe this is a important key to success.

We have reopened our eBay store this month. This allows us to put items on eBay for 30 days at only 20 cents a month rather than the 50 cents it was costing us. We no longer get 50 free auctions a month but in the end if we list more it will pay for itself in the difference of fees. The store also allows us extra pictures at no extra costs.

I am hoping all the extra work these last months that our income will continue to increase. I hope that you will continue to vistit my site and watch for postings on our journey buying and selling. My sons say we are pickers and in truth we are.

Thanks for stopping by and lets keep saving together.. Grace

CASH FOR TRASH FOR THE LOVE OF UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS Selling on eBay

I have been hearing about the great success of those who find and sell UGLY Sweaters. As I search for them I never seem to come across them. All of a sudden last week I did find 4 that I felt kind of fit.
Of course Christmas is almost here and it is a little late to get on the band wagon. I did buy them and listed them on eBay for 5 days. They did not sell but that is fine. I will just keep them for now and continue to hunt for more UGLY Christmas sweaters and start to sell them next September.
The ones I found are not as ugly as some I see on eBay but all in all they can be quite humorous.
These are the sweaters I found, all were either $2.00 or $3.00 each so a thrifty find.

Do you wear ugly sweaters to office parties or any Christmas parties? I have a sweat shirt that my grand daughters gave me over 12 to 14 years ago. My son had their names with hand prints put on it. The baby is foot prints. I love and treasure it and wear it every Christmas. Ugly in its own way but also a special treasure from my kids.

Thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together..Grace

eBay Sales Friday Follow Up 11/25/11

Good morning everyone. This is the first of my eBay sales follow up. I hope to share with you how my sales were over the last 7 days on ebay.  From 11/18 to 11/24 we had 11 gross sales and total of $216.63.

Some of the highlights were a copy of The 81st Infantry Wildcat Division in World War II. Buyers father in law was in this company and will be a gift to husband and children. Buy It Now Sale price was $59.99. This was found a while back at a local estate auction and bought in a box of books for about $7.00.

Hubby found 39 Nero Wolfe paperbacks at a used church book store and was able to buy them for $3.88. Sold for $51.00 in an auction.

Balance of sales were several vintage doll clothes bought at a recent auction and an AA book.

Well time to head out to find some more treasures. Today is Black Friday. I will not be in the big stores shopping but heading over to a thrift store that is selling all used items at 50 percent off.
I did make one error in one of my listings and have offered to refund buyers money. I bought several vintage canvas bank deposit bags. The one I sold was nylon not canvas.  Hope buyer still wants it.
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by..Come back to see what I found today at the thrift store.  Grace