Possible to make modest living by buying/selling on ebay?

[ktho540]

This might also be something youll want to consider,if trying to make a living on Ebay

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marketingweb?cmd=_render-content&content_ID=marketing_us/IRS6050W

 

[C4L]

Hello all, this is my first post on any forum. Well, I started selling about three months ago on eBay and doing a local card show one Saturday per month. I would definitely suggest doing a card show. I sell so many different items at the show than what sells on eBay. I've been getting about $1,000 per day at the show and about $1,500 per month on eBay. So the show is WAY more profitable for me, as well as being all cash transactions.

I've been getting my supply from Craigslist for pennies on the dollar. That being said, most lots on Craigslist are junk, but every few weeks something great will pop up and you just have to act on it quickly. Also have picked up a few lots on eBay but you can't get the deals like you do locally. I tried busting some boxes and honestly can't imagine anyone making a profit that way. If you buy a $200 hobby box of say 2011 Bowman Sterling, probably 1 in 10 boxes will pay you back. To me buying any hobby box is like throwing money in the trash. You can buy lots that have nothing but hits and still pay less per card with really no risk of losing your money.

 

[G $MONEY$]

SO...I turned to Amazon + wow, what a world of difference, especially as I use Amazon FBA which basically means I buy items, ship them to amazon, when they sell, Amazon handles the shipping, customer service, returns, etc. Nearly all items have stock photos, so listing involves clicking "sell one like this."

What type of items are u buying and selling on Amazon, if u don't mind me asking?

So u are buying these items locally and shipping to Amazon, who sells these on your behalf and ships them to ur customers for you, for a profit??

 

[G $MONEY$]

The thing that I really wish I could physically do, is do box breaks on blog TV. If you look at people like, say, CloutsNChara, they make money hand over foot. If you had 15 or $20,000 to invest in getting a brick-and-mortar store and getting approved by Panini and upper deck, I really think there is a lot of money to be made. If you look at the average product CnC breaks, and do the math on how many spots per case they are selling, they make almost 3 or $400 a case (they are currently making $700 a case off of 10-11 The Cup-and I'm talking about at our price, not at distributors price)! And, on release dates, they can do between five and 10 cases per night (when the cup came out, they did about 15 cases in less than a week) granted, they have a great following and it's not something that will happen overnight, but if you were on blog TV every night, and you provided a cheaper price than they did (which would be really easy considering you can buy directly from blowout, sell on your blog TV, factor in the cost of shipping and handling and you could break out even) you could make money.

Unfortunately, I can't do that. So I have to stick to singles. In less than a year, I have turned $250 into about $2000 worth of collection value. It can be done, it just takes patience and smart investing. I imagine if you have a higher overhead, you can make more money. I also have to agree with the other people, at 22 years old, If you don't have a college degree and you have enough free time to want to do this full time, you should really go to community college and get an associates degree in something.

I know of Clouts N Chara being HUGE case busters from Canada but i didn't realize they were making that much of a profit off setting up case breaks, WOW!!!

 

[SydBarrett]

The thing that I really wish I could physically do, is do box breaks on blog TV. If you look at people like, say, CloutsNChara, they make money hand over foot. If you had 15 or $20,000 to invest in getting a brick-and-mortar store and getting approved by Panini and upper deck, I really think there is a lot of money to be made. If you look at the average product CnC breaks, and do the math on how many spots per case they are selling, they make almost 3 or $400 a case (they are currently making $700 a case off of 10-11 The Cup-and I'm talking about at our price, not at distributors price)! And, on release dates, they can do between five and 10 cases per night (when the cup came out, they did about 15 cases in less than a week) granted, they have a great following and it's not something that will happen overnight, but if you were on blog TV every night, and you provided a cheaper price than they did (which would be really easy considering you can buy directly from blowout, sell on your blog TV, factor in the cost of shipping and handling and you could break out even) you could make money.

Unfortunately, I can't do that. So I have to stick to singles. In less than a year, I have turned $250 into about $2000 worth of collection value. It can be done, it just takes patience and smart investing. I imagine if you have a higher overhead, you can make more money. I also have to agree with the other people, at 22 years old, If you don't have a college degree and you have enough free time to want to do this full time, you should really go to community college and get an associates degree in something.

I know of Clouts N Chara being HUGE case busters from Canada but i didn't realize they were making that much of a profit off setting up case breaks, WOW!!!

Without directly linking to their site, if you go to their group breaks form, they have had a few five person Cup drafts in the last month. Six spots at $500 a spot= $3000. You can get a case on David Adams for around $2300. There are plenty of other active people who break stuff on blog TV, but none of them are as active. I guarantee if an American set up the same thing they have, they would make more money simply because it takes two weeks to get stuff from Canada to California.

 

[mchenrycards]

The old joke I heard when I talked about owning a sports card store was:

Do you know how to become a millionaire in the sports card business??

Start with ten million!


I used to own a successful card shop but in the end it went belly up because of the economic downturn this country experienced. Sure you can make money in this business and some people even make a living at it but you need good business sense and a good deal of capitol to back you. Do yourself a favor, go to school and earn a degree in business management and then open your card store. Hopefully you can hope to avoid the many pitfalls many business owners make (especially card shop owners) by educating yourself in the ways of business.

 

[rainmanesq]

SO...I turned to Amazon + wow, what a world of difference, especially as I use Amazon FBA which basically means I buy items, ship them to amazon, when they sell, Amazon handles the shipping, customer service, returns, etc. Nearly all items have stock photos, so listing involves clicking "sell one like this."

What type of items are u buying and selling on Amazon, if u don't mind me asking?

So u are buying these items locally and shipping to Amazon, who sells these on your behalf and ships them to ur customers for you, for a profit??

A little bit of everything- toys (they do amazing during the holidays b/c amazon locks the category down from nov-jan), new/used videogames, new/used movies, boardgames (old, sealed usually), electronics, etc. Pretty much anything I can make $$$ on. I did amazingly well w/skylanders this year for example.

I buy the items from a variety of places- ex., $20 buck new tivos from the blockbusters that were closing (sold for $180+ on amazon...also loaded up on movies/games that blockbuster was blowing out), businesses closing, black friday/other crazy deal type of items, amazon's 'lightning deal', retail arbitrage/market inefficiencies, wholesale, free stuff on craigslist/freecycle, retail clearances (ex., target had 90% off videogames + toys recently) craigslist, ebay, thrift stores, etc. Some stuff sells better on amazon, some sells better on ebay. Key is to know it + maximize your profits. Amazon has come A LONG way from "just books."

Yes, I buy, list on amazon, + amazon ships/handles customer service/returns. Amazon also ships the items to ebay buyers (US only) for me. I also ship some amazon items myself. Shipping is a wash as amazon refunds it for FBA. Total fees range from 12-25%. I get paid daily (but it takes 3-5 days to hit the bank account).

BTW, for those who use COMC (I don't- yet), COMC will now cross-list on amazon for you.

 

[G $MONEY$]

SO...I turned to Amazon + wow, what a world of difference, especially as I use Amazon FBA which basically means I buy items, ship them to amazon, when they sell, Amazon handles the shipping, customer service, returns, etc. Nearly all items have stock photos, so listing involves clicking "sell one like this."

What type of items are u buying and selling on Amazon, if u don't mind me asking?

So u are buying these items locally and shipping to Amazon, who sells these on your behalf and ships them to ur customers for you, for a profit??

A little bit of everything- toys (they do amazing during the holidays b/c amazon locks the category down from nov-jan), new/used videogames, new/used movies, boardgames (old, sealed usually), electronics, etc. Pretty much anything I can make $$$ on. I did amazingly well w/skylanders this year for example.

I buy the items from a variety of places- ex., $20 buck new tivos from the blockbusters that were closing (sold for $180+ on amazon...also loaded up on movies/games that blockbuster was blowing out), businesses closing, black friday/other crazy deal type of items, amazon's 'lightning deal', retail arbitrage/market inefficiencies, wholesale, free stuff on craigslist/freecycle, retail clearances (ex., target had 90% off videogames + toys recently) craigslist, ebay, thrift stores, etc. Some stuff sells better on amazon, some sells better on ebay. Key is to know it + maximize your profits. Amazon has come A LONG way from "just books."

Yes, I buy, list on amazon, + amazon ships/handles customer service/returns. Amazon also ships the items to ebay buyers (US only) for me. I also ship some amazon items myself. Shipping is a wash as amazon refunds it for FBA. Total fees range from 12-25%. I get paid daily (but it takes 3-5 days to hit the bank account).

BTW, for those who use COMC (I don't- yet), COMC will now cross-list on amazon for you.

Thanks for all the info, very interesting.

 

[G $MONEY$]

The thing that I really wish I could physically do, is do box breaks on blog TV. If you look at people like, say, CloutsNChara, they make money hand over foot. If you had 15 or $20,000 to invest in getting a brick-and-mortar store and getting approved by Panini and upper deck, I really think there is a lot of money to be made. If you look at the average product CnC breaks, and do the math on how many spots per case they are selling, they make almost 3 or $400 a case (they are currently making $700 a case off of 10-11 The Cup-and I'm talking about at our price, not at distributors price)! And, on release dates, they can do between five and 10 cases per night (when the cup came out, they did about 15 cases in less than a week) granted, they have a great following and it's not something that will happen overnight, but if you were on blog TV every night, and you provided a cheaper price than they did (which would be really easy considering you can buy directly from blowout, sell on your blog TV, factor in the cost of shipping and handling and you could break out even) you could make money.

Unfortunately, I can't do that. So I have to stick to singles. In less than a year, I have turned $250 into about $2000 worth of collection value. It can be done, it just takes patience and smart investing. I imagine if you have a higher overhead, you can make more money. I also have to agree with the other people, at 22 years old, If you don't have a college degree and you have enough free time to want to do this full time, you should really go to community college and get an associates degree in something.

I know of Clouts N Chara being HUGE case busters from Canada but i didn't realize they were making that much of a profit off setting up case breaks, WOW!!!

Without directly linking to their site, if you go to their group breaks form, they have had a few five person Cup drafts in the last month. Six spots at $500 a spot= $3000. You can get a case on David Adams for around $2300. There are plenty of other active people who break stuff on blog TV, but none of them are as active. I guarantee if an American set up the same thing they have, they would make more money simply because it takes two weeks to get stuff from Canada to California.

Yeah i know of their site, no need to link it for me. I know they get a ton of business from Canadians because they do a lot of Hockey breaks (actually im not even sure if they do non-Hockey case breaks??), i wonder if a lot of people in the US enter their breaks?? and yeah, i never realized they made such a big profit, just never really looked into it. I know they do have a huge following though, are honest and are providing a service people want, so i don't see nothing wrong with them making some spending money on the side, personally. I know they also sell boxes/cases/singles etc., so i imagine this is kind of like their full time job.

 

[rainmanesq]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Disney-power-ra ... 3cbcdab7e1[/url]

I listed mine on ebay as BIN- didn't sell. Bam, it sold on amazon for $60+ (I paid all of $2 for it @ Salvation army)

 

[BoatsN304s]

I have a couple friends who sell on eBay for a living. Pretty easy **** but just time consuming. Make around $2000 a month but it occupies a lot of time. Genius idea too. I would do it but don't have the time nor the patience. I like flipping cards. More fun for me. Not profittable at all though.

 

[BaseballNut]

"Two eyes, two ears, a chin, a mouth, 10 fingers, two nipples, a butt, two kneecaps, a *****. I have just described to you the Lochness Monster, and the reward for its capture? All the riches in Scotland. So I have one question, why are you still here?"

LMAO yeah whatever Creed!