If you were told you had $500 in your closet, how hard would you work at finding it? I'll bet you'd have it empty in no time looking for that money.
Everyone has $500 in their closet
A common question when discussing selling on eBay is, “What will I sell?†People often feel they have nothing of real value. I usually respond by telling them that nearly everyone has $500 in their closet. They just have to clean the closet and give selling a try. The items are usually right under their noses.
When I began selling on eBay, I pulled a few of my son’s clothes out of storage with a few of my wife’s nicer maternity clothes. I especially searched for name brand clothing. If I couldn’t find name brands, I’d put a lot together and sell several items at once. Putting one Tommy Hilfiger or Ralph Lauren with some lesser-known brands is a way to get everything to sell. The clothing I dug out turned into around $75 on eBay in a couple of weeks.
I also came across an old 35mm Pentax K1000 I’d bought when I moved to New York in 1983. The camera was still in good shape and had about three lenses and a few attachments. I hadn’t used it in years though, so I decided to sell it. In 1983 I paid around $250 for the camera new, in 2002 it sold on eBay for $273. My total was now up to $348.
An old cassette tape player, a few moderately interesting collectibles, and a couple of books later I was up to $500. All from boxes in a storage closet I’d moved from house to apartment to apartment and so on for several years. Just “stuffâ€.
You Have "Stuff" Too
Over the past few years I’ve found that most people have things they’ve gathered from their past. Many of those things are not especially sentimental items, but just things that have gotten packed away. Pack rats can do well on eBay – if they are willing to liquidate. It makes more room for packing in more things later. Rotate the inventory!
One question a new seller should avoid is “Why would anyone pay for THAT!?!†The fact is people will pay for things that seem silly to us. Just take their payment and send the item. It’s not up to us to decide why an item is desirable. Take the money.
True Story: eBay’s founder Pierre Omidyar sold one of the early items on eBay; it was a broken laser pointer. I wanted to show that anything could be sold on eBay to some of my students at eBay University. While walking past eBay’s San Jose, CA headquarters one day, I spotted a run-over Oneida soup spoon laying in the street. I left the spoon there and went home to get my camera. I took a photograph of the spoon right there on the street with eBay in the background and listed the spoon as “Bent Oneida Soup Spoon found in front of eBayâ€. In the description I stated that it had been run over by “genuine eBay employees in luxury automobilesâ€. The spoon finally received 15 bids and sold for $4.95. Certainly you can find something even better in your closet.
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1 comment so far ↓
Hi,
Just read your blog and enjoyed it! You sound just like my son. Watch your spelling. I like your web site ALOT!
Love ya,
Mom
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