New Ebay Account Set Up

Armed with the total amount of 67 cents that I have found in the course of my Penny Millions, and a new eBay account with no feedback I am ready to go. I will hopefully find my first item soon.  New eBay Account .  I linked it here because I wanted to show proof that it is a new eBay account.  I have heard many people saying that they cannot sell on eBay because they have no feedback, I will show that to be false.  Of course very few people will trust you to buy a $1000 item, but for small items $10 or less most people will not even care about feedback.  I could raise my feedback by buying a bunch of cheap stuff and reselling it, but I will do it the hard way by selling.  I will let you guys know when I buy my first item and have it up.  I am excited about this new project I hope you will all follow me, there will be an eBook to follow eventually.

Just to remind you where the 67 cents came from, the first step of penny millions is, start looking on the ground for change.  You will find pennies often, and the occasional nickel, dime, or quarter.  I have even found a $20 bill before.  So if you want to follow along start getting change, open up your eBay account, open a pay-pal account, link the paypal to a bank account, then link the paypal to your ebay account and you are in business.  It sounds like a lot of hassle but is actually easier than it sounds :). 

Good places to look for change

Start wherever you are.  You can find change in parking lots of places you normally go, just about anywhere.  Better than average places are laundromats, coin op car washes, around the vending machines, in the coin returns of vending machines.  I have found a couple of dollars in quarters at a car wash several times.  Do not drive out of your way to go to these places, just stop by if you are passing them anyway.  Otherwise you will be spending more gas than the change you find.  You will get looked at funny for picking up a penny, do not worry about it just smile and go on your way.  Most people are too lazy to bend down and pick it up.

Benefits of finding money

Instead of using your own money and worrying that the item will not sell, if you are using found money you will have no worry.  It is not your money, you are risking nothing.

Fees and Shipping

If you are selling on eBay with Pay Pal you need to know the fees, you get 50 free listing fees a month with an occasional free listing offer of many more per month.  After that 50 it costs a certain amount to list depending on what you are listing.  Avoid these listing fees completely till you are doing decent volume on eBay.  They also charge a final value fee of 10%.  this is charged on the shipping and item price.  so if you sell an item for .99 with 2.99 shipping it will cost 40 cents in a final value fee.  PayPal also charges a fee, pay pal charges .30 plus 2.9%.  So pay pal fees on that item would be 30 cents plus 12 cents.  Add those fees together and you get 

eBay .40

PayPal .42

Fees  Total: .82

3.98 - .82 = 3.16

If it cost 2.00 to ship you would have 1.16 left after all fees and shipping.  Be careful when selling low dollar items, you can easily lose money on them.  You are looking for an item that you can get cheap, that sells for $5 or more, preferably over $10.  So if you find an item that costs a quarter, that sell for 5.00 costs $2 to ship it would look more like this.  

Sold for $5 plus $2 shipping.  

7.00

- ebay fee of .70

- pay pal fee of .30 plus .21

-shipping 2.00

That would give you a profit of 3.79 off of a quarter investmen, or put in another way 1519% profit.  That may sound like a lot, but these deals are out there often if you know what to look for.  It just takes a little experience and the willingness to look stuff up on ebay and amazon so you can make an educated decision.  It will make more sense once I start showing you the items I have bought, what they sold for, what I paid, and how long it took to sell.

At first I will be selling stuff on auction starting out pretty cheap, so I can keep building my capital.  Once I hit a certain point, I will start asking more closely to what they are worth and holding longer if needed.

So now maybe you understand the fee structure and what is required to start an eBay business, and some of the costs to expect.  Notice I did not mention gas, wear and tear on the car, eating out while getting inventory, there are many small expenses that can get out of hand and cause you to not profit.  We will be getting around that by only stopping at a place that we are close by.  I will be stopping at yard sales on the way back from taking my son to school, stopping at thrift store on the way to buy groceries, etc.  It should cost nothing extra until I get a decent amount of money to buy product with.  Then I will start factoring in the other costs.

I hope you are looking forward to following me on this project, if you are please link to me, leave a comment, link me on your social media sites etc.  Happy Picking!

Learning to Pick

So you have seen American pickers and you want to do what they do.  Well...  I am hear to tell you it is not at all glamorous.  But anyone can make money at it and it is easy to start.  I thought about picking for a long time before I started.  The reason I never started was analysis paralysis.  I started to do research on stuff that sells and the more I learned the more I realized was out there.  I thought that I had to be an expert in antiques and collectibles before I started so the project went on the back burner for many, many years.  Then something happened.  I got my first smart phone and data plan.  Now the whole world was at my fingertips most anywhere.  Enough about me on to the meat .....

Beginning

Go where the stuff is.  Go to yard sales, thrift stores, flea markets etc.  Look for items that you like and would buy.  Start with your knowledge and then expand over time.

Apps

How do I know what will sell?  Easy.  Download the E-bay app, do a search of sold items only.  When you are out and see an item that you like discreetly search on ebay for the item.  Please keep in mind that you will not always get the top price so make sure there is room for profit.  I usually have to have at least 5 times what I payed for the item in profit, sometimes I get 30 time what I payed for it.

This is easy I will be a millionaire soon....

I know it seems easy, especially when you find an item that sells for 30 times what you payed, make sure to keep up with gas spent, e-bay fees, shipping etc..  It is also a lot of work, very few ever make a full time living off of it, and the ones that do work like a dog.  It can be fun and profitable though, anyone can make a little extra each week with minimal time.

Finding Products

Finding products is the easy part, selling them is what will make or break you.  Just because an item has sold in the past does not mean it will sell in the future.  I have items that I have had for many months that I cannot give away :).  I love picking, it is a lot of fun.  I hate the selling part, but it is necessary.  Without devoting time to selling you are not picking.  You are hoarding.  Watch an episode of hoarders to see where that will get you.

I will not give you specific products, or tell you how to sell on e-bay.  that part is up to you.  The tools I have given you is more than enough to get you started.  If you want the money you will take this and go out and make something happen.  I did and many others have as well.  I believe this is one of the cheapest and easiest part time jobs to start.  I hope you get as much enjoyment and profit as I have.  It has changed my life, this is what has inspired my business.