Making Extra Money on eBay Edition
August 2, 2009
I used to sell a lot of stuff on eBay. On the way home from work I’d stop by discount stores and buy heavily discounted products, my favorite were sporting goods. In the evenings I’d create listings in my eBay store and answer any questions that came in about the products I was selling. In the mornings I’d package up any sales and then over lunch hour I’d go to the post office or UPS store.
Then we had kids and my free time pretty much evaporated so I didn’t have much of a chance to find new things to sell. I still had a bunch of stuff for sale that wasn’t listed in my eBay store so I found an eBay partner who listed, sold, and shipped a lot of the products I had left. Now he’s overwhelmed with kids, a 3 year old and 3 month old twins, so he recently cashed out of the eBay game himself.
I still have my eBay store, I’m not adding any inventory but I still make a sale or two per month. Just this week I sold a brand new motorcycle helmet for $595 that I bought for $300 about a year ago, not a bad return. Of course, I also sold a router that caused me nothing but headaches. The guy that bought it decided he couldn’t use the router once it arrived and wanted a refund. I won’t go into all the details but I ended up refunding him the money with a lot of hassle in between.
My whole point is that if you’re looking to make some extra money, selling on eBay is a simple way to do it. Once you have some feedback established you can start earning money right away. It does take time to find products, list them, ship them, and field customer questions but if you have the time to spare it’s not a bad way to make some extra money.
If you don’t want to hassle with making money on eBay, here are some money articles on other ways to make or save money:
Make Money
Consumerism Commentary looks at making money with a CD ladder.
The Digerati Life is hosting a contest where you can win $250.
Suns Financial Diary points out a $25 dollar bonus from ING.
Save Money
Generation X Finance might save you some money when financing a car.
Frugal Dad shares some options where you can save birthday money.
Free Money Finance has a guest post on how to save on prescriptions.
My Dollar plan has some tips on how to survive survive during a recession.
No Credit Needed looks at budgeting categories.
Other Money Tips
Five Cent Nickel has a guest article about foreclosures and risk.
Million Dollar Journey has a case study on financial priorities.
Get Rich Slowly reflects back on what he didn’t know about money.
Brip Blap discusses money and his recent business trip.
Lazy Man and Money covers estate planning.
Jeff Rose breaks down the tax rules on Cash for Clunkers.
Thanks to Green Panda Treehouse for hosting the carnival of money stories.
To end on a laugh check out this funny list of books at Mighty Bargain Hunter. Have a great weekend!
All posts by Ben Edwards
I am going to try to not rail against eBay, but recent changes make earning money very difficult for an average person. They have raised fees across the board, favoring powersellers that make money selling more product at lower margins. As ebay has changed from more of a online garage sale to an online mall the marketplace is dominated by these sellers. Considering your time, shipping fees, listing and final value fees (upwards of 10%!), and the hassle, unless you find real bargains, create something compelling, or simply need to get rid of stuff (without profit-making as a goal) I don’t feel that it is worthwhile to sell on ebay. The very nature of the site also creates problems, like the experience with the router you described. Bad buyers and bad sellers can easily rip off their counterpart, and ebay/Paypal does not have very good systems in place to remedy the problems.
Just my 2 cents. I have sold many items on ebay, sometimes with the goal of just making a profit. I haven’t for a while however, because it simply is much more difficult nowadays.