Sorry for the cheesy quick buck scheme of a headline, but it’s true, I did in fact make a 1,067% profit in a week…and you can too!!! (Here’s where you have to imagine a shiny glint of a starburst on my recently bleached teeth.)
The reason for this post is to show that with a little bit of knowledge and some luck, you can, in fact, make a profit on eBay, despite it’s obnoxious fees.
I recently wrote a post about some items I picked up at a yard sale. These were some vintage Fisher Price playsets. I was able to get all of these items for $20.00.
I went home, cleaned them up, and took some photos of each set from all different angles, and then posted them on eBay.
One week later, the auctions ended with a combined total selling price of $183.07. Not a bad return on my initial $20 investment.
Another item I picked up at a yard sale that morning was this:
It is a first edition copy of the popular book, Wicked
and there is money to be made there if you know what to look for, and how to identify a true first edition.
Of course you need to factor in taxes and the ever-increasing eBay fees, but it’s always nice to make a little money. My wife and I have a deal, where I can buy all the “crap” I want for my collection, as long as she doesn’t see any money come out of our bank account. Making money by selling items on eBay has allowed me to fund my collecting habit so I can continue to buy and share true treasures such as this:
So, what was the best ROI you have made on an eBay sale?
I had a couple of vintage board games go for like 200% of what I paid for them. One of them was an old Indiana Jones game and the other I think was Dukes of Hazzard. That’s misleading though because both of those games were from when I was a kid. I didn’t re-sell.
Great turnaround, man.
Those are great games. I love those old TV and movie-based board games. I have a stack of them in the basement.
(BTW-I’m digging your new avatar, Paxton!)
Haha! Thanks, I’ve been on a real Bionic Man kick lately. I’m reading the original Cyborg novels, I’m reading the old Charlton Six Million Dollar man comics and I’m watching my old VHS copies of Six Million Dollar Man episodes. Sooooooo good. I thought I needed to refresh my avatar to my current obsession.
I really want to get the money together to get that complete Six Million Dollar Man DVD collection from Time/Life. But $250 is steep. I mainly want the original TV movies, the reunion movies and just a few of the actual episodes like the Bigfoot episode, the Bionic Woman episodes and the $7 Million Man episode. I can piece together the original TV movies, Season 1 and the reunion movies from eBay, but specific episodes after season 1 are hard to come by on DVD.
I’ve been watching eBay for a deal on that Time/Life set but it just hasn’t happened. Let me know if you get it. I can’t wait to read your reviews!
I bought an old Tudor Electric Football 355 board and teams at a “as is” Salvation Army for $2.49! I sold all of the teams for around $200 and I still have the model 355 board that I need to sell! A little research tells me that the board is one of the more sought after boards by collectors due to it’s size and could fetch around $300 (that was a couple of years ago so who knows if the price it up or down from that).
Excellent find! Those are some great nostalgic games for a lot of people. I’ve had some great luck at thrift stores and the salvation army, but nothing like that!
nice. I’ve sold a couple 1980s boomboxes over the past week. I picked up 3 boxes for a combined $17, and made $265. but it sucks after ebay and paypal take their cut. I can’t believe ebay is taking also taking a percentage of the shipping cost now too.
Boomboxes are hot commodity these days. I saw a report on CBS Sunday morning a few weeks ago all about boom boxes, and I think there’s a new book out about them.
Yeah, the eBay fees are getting obnoxious. I’m still not sure how it’s legal for them to take a cut of your shipping charges. Shipping large, heavy items can seriously affect your bottom line now.
I haven’t jumped on the Ebay bandwagon yet. With the returns collectors get from it, I must! Nice return on that beautiful collection of Fisher Price!
Hey Van, if you get that Shogun Warrior you showed me a while ago and put it up on eBay, you’ll be writing a post like this one on your site!
Best yard sale find I flipped was a box of Transformers. The box in the story was the kind dish washers come in. I picked up this massive collection for 20 bucks. It had all of wave 1,2,3 and a lot of the later ones.. All said and done I cleared around 4 grand.
Oh man, I can only imagine how you kept a straight face while making that score! Awesome.
Are there any sites devoted to Fisher Price Little People? Been looking around but i’ve come up with nothin.
You might find some info at the Fisher Price Collector’s Club web site: http://www.fpclub.org/