Ebay Money Maker - Free Murad w/Purchase

Murad has a great deal right now. You can read the details here.

Basically you purchase the book, The Water Secret, from one of the retailers listed. When you buy the book, just forward the email confirmation to TheWaterSecretOffer@murad.com. Then Murad will mail you the two FREE full-sized products: Renewing Eye Cream and new Hybrids Eye Lift.

The best price for the book is Walmart with the ship to store for $10.75 or Amazon price of $10.91 with free Amazon Prime shipping. Then you can turn around and sell the 2 Murad products on Ebay. The Renewing Eye Cream is selling for $35 to $45 (that is selling not just listed). The Murad Eye Lift is selling for around $20 on Ebay.

So for $11, you can get a book and two items. Sell the the items for $55 (conservative estimate) less selling fees. Estimated profit: $55-$11-$10(fees)= $34 profit plus book for a gift or to read.

This deal expires 1/31/11 or while supplies last.

It's Ebay Time !! Listing Your Item on Ebay

So you are ready to list an item on Ebay. I am going to talk you through a listing for a Lego toy. Depending on what you are listing some item specifics could be different. Don't worry, it is actually really pretty simple! Here are some easy step by step directions


Page 1
1.The first screen asks for the category. If you did your research then you should already have an idea of which category to use . You can use the Browse Category button or enter keywords.

Page 2 has a lot of details.
1. Title: This is important. Remember to use your Keywords and try to use all the space allowed.
2. Subtitle: The cost is .50 extra. I only use this great items that I really want noticed.

3. Next is Item Specifics: (these can be different for different categories)
Condition: make a choice
Age: if your item has an age range
Type: usually there are some choices or you can enter or your own

4. Pictures: the first photo is free. Extra photos cost .15 or you can buy a package. I usually include several photos.

5. Description: describe your item here. If you were the buyer, what things would you want to know about the item?

6. Listing Designer: here you can choose a background for your listing. It costs .10 for designer listing. I really think that this makes listings look better. I always buy this for .10 .

7. Auction vs Fixed Price: here you make a choice between Auction and Fixed Price. Remember that the first 5 auctions each 30 days are free.

8. Choose your starting price and if you want a Buy It Now price or for Fixed Price just list your price.

9. Choose the duration that you want your item listed for.

10. Now you can choose when you want the auction/fixed price to start. If you start immediately then there is no charge. I prefer my items to end at night so I pay the extra .10 to choose the day and time for the item to be listed.

11. Electronic Payment: you need to have a Paypal account. Ebay made this rule change about 1 year ago.

12. Shipping details: use the Shipping Wizard link to help you choose your shipping option. You need to also decide if you are going to ship internationally.

13. Return Policy: you must specify your return policy.

Page 3: Review your listing
This last page offers upgrades to you listings. More importantly it shows how your listing will appear and the total cost of listing the item.

When everything looks good then hit List your Item. Congratulations, you have listed your item on Ebay.

It's Ebay Time! Auction vs Fixed Price

When you are ready to list an item on Ebay, you need to decide if you are going to list it in a auction or at a fixed price.

First let's talk about a couple of terms:
Insertion fee : this is the fee that Ebay charges to list your item
Final Value fee : if you item sells then Ebay charges this fee

Ebay fees can be confusing. You can see a list of Ebay fees here. Ebay lets you have 5 free Auction listings within a 30 day period. That is Ebay does not charge the insertion fee for the first 5 auctions. You are still charged the Final Value fee.

Here are some things to consider when deciding Auction vs Fixed Price:
1. Is your item selling well? If the sell through rate is high then you will probably be ok with an auction listing. Remember with an auction listing, you are never guaranteed a higher price.

2. Think about how much you want to sell you item for. If you list an auction item for 9.99, then will you be happy if you only receive one bid for $9.99?

3. A large lot of a popular item or extremely rare items seem to do better with auction listings.

4. Remember as we get closer to the holidays, people just want to buy their gifts now. they don't want to wait for an auction to end. You can offer a Buy It Now with an auction listing BUT if someone bids the minimum price then the Buy It Now goes away. You may lose potential customers who missed the Buy It Now and don't want to wait for the auction to end.

Ebay has changed in the last few years. More people want their items now. During the holiday season, I list 90% of my items as fixed price. By doing research, I can tell what the price should be in order to sell. With auctions, I never am sure what price I will get.

It's Ebay Time! What to sell ~ Part 2

This a continuing series of posts about how to sell on Ebay. You can see the entire list of posts here.

Today is Part 2 of "What to Sell" on Ebay. Let's say that you don't have anything in your house that you can sell. You can look for items at garage sales, thrift stores, or local stores. My main focus is going to be buying items at your local store to resell on Ebay.

First, though, I want to say a little about garage sales and thrift stores.
Garage Sales: I love garage sales! Unfortunately if you live in the northern half of the U.S. , the garage sale season is over. If you are lucky to have garage sales now then do some research on Ebay for items that you might find. Try to pick a niche such as girls toys or infant clothing. That way when you see something at a garage sale, you can have an idea of the selling price on Ebay.

Thrift Stores: Thrift stores can be a great place to find items. Some thrift stores are better than others. Also I see a lot of people buying for resell at thrift stores so you have increased competition. Try to find out when your thrift store puts out new items. My Goodwill puts out their items around 9:30 am and again around 2 pm. Make sure that you find out if you can return items. You don't want to be stuck with something that won't sell.

So now let's talk about buying items at your local store for resell on Ebay. I have had great success with this method and you can too! Buying from the store has 1 major advantage: You can return the item and get your money back. This is a huge advantage!

You need to be organized and keep your receipts. Also find out the return policy of the store. If you don't sell the item then you can return it and get your money back. Beware: some stores such as Target have a different return policy for seasonal items. Know the return policy!

So where can you find goodies to sell? Here are a few ideas:

1. Walmart : Yes, Walmart! They have a clearance aisle where you can find some awesome deals. Here is an example. I was in Walmart yesterday and they had Girl Gourmet Ice Cream Sandwich refills for a $1.00 a box. Here is a listing on Ebay where they just sold three packages for $13.99. Your three boxes would have cost $3.

2. Dollar General, Family Dollar, Big Lots, & Dollar Stores: these stores carry some discontinued items that can be resold on Ebay for a profit. Also they are a great place to buy if you are selling gift baskets. Look for discontinued cosmetics or make-up. People like certain brands and will pay more if they can no longer find them at their store. Look through the entire store and think of making gift baskets. Today I saw several possible gift basket ideas such a Spiderman gift basket or a girls basket with iCarly/Hannah Montana items. Check out some gift basket ideas here on Ebay.

3. Hallmark stores: My Hallmark has a great mark down section. Take a look and then check the prices on Ebay. Remember to think if you can get more by grouping items together in a set or gift basket.

4. Bath & Body Works: Use some of the free coupons to get items and then sell the items on Ebay. Again group items together or make a basket. When making a basket or group, try to put in one large item then add the smaller free items that you got. Check out baskets here. Click here to get the latest free Bath & Body Works coupon.

5. Look for the "Hot" toys of the season: pay attention to the "new" hot toys of the season. This year people are saying that the Zhu Zhu hamster pets will do well.

6. Think outside the box. I have a friend whose family was involved with making custom model horses. People like to display the horses in a diorama setting. She found some Palm Trees at the Dollar store. Set up a diorama showing how to use the trees. Took photos and sold the palm trees on Ebay for $9.99 a set.

Tommorrow I will be talking about setting your price on Ebay. Auction vs Fixed vs Store - which option is best for you. How should you pricing change as you get closer to the holiday?

Then on Wednesday, I will be go through a Ebay listing step by step for you.

It's Ebay Time! What to sell ~ Part 1

So you want to make some money on Ebay. Now you need something to sell. First let's talk about two Myths of Ebay:

Myth #1 ~ My item is old therefore it is worth money. False! Sure some older items are worth money but a lot of items are not.
Myth #2 ~ My item is newer so therefore it is not worth anything. False! Some newer items sell better than old items. This applies to newer items in used condition also.

That is why it is so important to research the selling price of your items on Ebay. Having trouble finding your item on Ebay? I will be posting about that later this week.

So you might wonder what I am selling this holiday season.

Here are some of the things that I plan to sell:
1. Legos : Legos are very popular toys. You can sell complete sets, partial sets, boxes of pieces, or just one Lego minifig. Research what you have to decide how to sell you Legos. Look for cross over Legos such as SpongeBob or Star Wars. Also some older discontinued sets do well even for special pieces.

2. Star Wars : I purchased 19 new in the box Star War sets for $20 at a garage sale. That is just a little over $1 a piece. I will definitely make money on these sets.

3. Polly Pockets ~ I have some older small Polly Pockets that I will be selling. Again crossover items do well such as Wizard of Oz or Disney sets.

4. American Girl & Bitty Baby ~ I found some American Girl and Bitty Baby items at garage sales. These items usually do very well during the Holiday season.

5. Disney pins ~ I found some cheap Disney pins that I plan to resell. Plus I might look through my collection and sell a few.

6. Christmas decorations ~ I am hoping sell some Christmas decorations that I no longer want.

I have more items to sell but you get the idea. So great for me but what about you? Start gathering items that you are no longer using or new items that you don't plan to use. Collect your items in a box and start researching them on Ebay. Remember that you can sell your items individually or as a group. For example, you can sell one place setting of a china pattern or you could sell the entire set together.

If an item is selling well then put a Post-it note on the item with the following information:
Category that the item is listed under
Selling price range
Any specific terms about the item (pattern etc)

Have items that are not selling well on Ebay? If the price is low and the item is not selling then don't bother listing that item. Those items could be sold on Craigslist, garage sale, thrift store, or taken to Goodwill for a tax deduction.

Ok, what if you looked up your items and they are not selling? Or what if you do not have excess stuff around your house to sell? Never fear! You can still make money on Ebay. Tommorrow I will be talking about how to buy items at your local stores and resell them on Ebay for a profit.

It's Ebay Time !! Get Started Now

Well, it is the start of the holiday season. For me, that means the start of my Ebay selling season. I have been selling on Ebay for a number of years. I sell under the name of Midwestgaragesaler. You can check out my profile here.


I sell about 75% of my stuff before the holidays and about 25% in the late Spring. The holiday season profit goes to Christmas gifts and vacation fund. I sell in the Spring to help out the vacation fund and the kid's summer camp fees. I usually make a profit of $2,000 to $3,000 dollars a year. That is profit after expenses are taken out. Not a huge amount of money but still a nice chunk of change.

Are you interested in selling on Ebay? I am will be writing posts for the next few days on how to get started.

You can make a profit on ebay if you do the following 2 things:

1. Research Your Items
Reserach, research, research!! Research will tell you what your item is worth on Ebay and if the item is worth selling on Ebay. Is it worth your time to sell something for $5.99 ? Remember that you have to list and mail the item. It takes time to do those things! Research will also tell you the best category in which to list your item.

(Note: if you are selling many of the same items that are easily listed and packaged then your time would be less. This applies to items such as coupons or books.)

2. Write a Searchable Title:
When you are looking for items on Ebay, do you search for the word "Wow"? Then why on earth would you list the word in your title!

Here is an example of a bad title:
Sweet Pea Anthropologie ONE SHOULDER lavender top S WOW

Instead of "Wow", the person should have tried to fit in the word "Shirt" or "womens".

Here is an example of a great title:
LEGO STAR WARS OBI-WAN KENOBI w/LIGHTSABER MINI FIGURE

The person used all of the title space and included relevant information.

To sell your item for the best price, people need to able to find your item.

Tommorow's Post
I will be talking about what I am selling Ebay and what you could sell on Ebay.