Mercari, E-Bay... does anyone here sell stuff online?

I’m not talking Facebook marketplace either.

Has anyone turned this into a semi-hobby?

 

Once upon a time, before marriage, I would hit up yard sales, Goodwill and online auctions of huge lots of video games, and then sell on eBay. I had a spreadsheet, and with my knowledge of the games and because it wasn't an especially popular market at the time, I was making a pretty decent yield of 20 to 40 percent a month. However, it wasn't anything I could imagine doing full-time - there just wasn't enough "inventory," so to speak, to regularly turn that kind of profit, and it was just a fun hobby for me in the first place, since I ended up keeping some of the stuff I'd find.

 

I have sold things on eBay, including a car, but not on a regular basis or as any sort of hobby.

 

That’s what I’m looking for... more of a fun hobby. So for every 10 you spent you got $12 back? Am I reading that correctly?

 

I don't think eBay is what it once was. It's very rare that you can find any kind of deals anymore. I used to buy stuff on there all the time. I bet I haven't bought anything in nearly a year. About the only thing I purchase there these days is razor blades.

 

When I bought our house almost 17 years ago, it came with a dark room that was untouched since the 70s or 80s (before the owner we bought it from). Lots of equipment that I wouldn't know if it's junk or valuable. A neighbor offered to sell it for me on Ebay and split it 50-50. At the time I said no way, but as it sits still untouched I should have grabbed the chance.

 

Pretty much, yes, although the margins would be incredible on some things, and not so great on others. Example: From Goodwill Auctions, I got a lot like this one, except it was for about 50 PS1 discs. Most of the games were trash, but there were enough singles and a couple of legitimate home runs - rarer RPGs - that I spent around $100 winning the auction, and then netted about $400, once I accounted for the cost of shipping and eBay's cut. That was probably my best yield, outside of things like finding NES games for $5 or less at a yard sale. (Even pretty generic NES games nowadays can fetch $10 to $40, depending on box and manual status.)

As you can imagine though, it was a pain in the ass to be doing things like buying big lots of games, and then listing and shipping them individually. I probably sunk like 40 hours into making that $400, although it wasn't completely "work" because there was a sense of fun to it, like opening packs of baseball cards and seeing what you get. I stopped doing it shortly after I met my future wife, and even at that point, I think I had 20 to 25 games that still hadn't sold. I ended up donating these to Goodwill - circle of life! - except for a couple that were so shitty, I just threw them out.

 

Shop Goodwill is awesome.

 

I have been an eBayer for almost since its inception; not huge but about 250 transactions. Its easy to sell but just know you're going to have to package and ship the item (however there are places that will do it for you now.)

Its got its niche, but you've got to know exactly what you're looking for and feedback is key.

 

I'd also add, as someone who's shipped a lot via eBay *and* worked for the USPS - Make sure you insure your items, and to use shipping with tracking! When I first started, some of the items I shipped were slim enough to be sent as letters - I'd say that magically, about 25 percent of them would be reported as "never arrived." Once I made sure everything I shipped had a barcode, my success rate on shipping was at like 99 percent. However, the one item that went missing after that was a $75 game, so I was happy to get the insurance cash for it.

 

I've sold 924 items since joining in 2012 for a grand total of $45,562.73. A good half of that is profit.

My best buy was a lot of about 120 old military patches. For $140, I sold upwards of $2,000 worth of those patches. My second-best (or maybe my best) was this pre-war bottle key made in Germany that had an alligator for the handle; paid $4, sold for $145.

Of course, I've lost my ass on some stuff, too. But not very damn often.

 

EBay?