Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume III, issue number 40

This ezine is published once a week.

October 18, 2007 Volume III, Issue 40

‘No more $5 Rule‘

by Lynn A. Dralle, ‘The Queen of Auctions’

OK, this is new for me and really exciting. This will not apply to all of you–especially those of you that are newer to eBay. But I am all about spending more money these days. Especially since I have enough $1 and cheaper items to last me at least 3 years!

Check out more of the progress that Mo has made in my garage! Looks like an antique store? Or maybe a high-end thrift store? Too Cool!

Also, it seems that in the past 2 weeks, I have been paying more for items and have been quite successful. I wanted to share some of these success stories with you to help get you motivated and thinking outside of the “$5 Rule” box.

However, I think that when starting out–The $5 rule is still a very good one. The rule is this: “Don’t spend over $5 for an item unless you know quite a bit about it.” As I have become more eBay savvy over the past few years, I am more comfortable spending larger amounts of money as I am sure that many of you are also.

Example #1: I am now buying entire estates. As you may recall, I bought what was left after an estate sale ended this past April. I spent about 30 to 40% of the retail marked price for close to a total $4,000 purchase.

Sharla Jackson (one of my Live Boot Camp students) was in town and with her help, my mom and I were able to get it all packed up and successfully dumped in my garage. And I do mean dumped! These are some of the items that Mo has been sorting for me.

Incredibly enough, one of the items from that bulk estate purchase turned out to be a very rare soup tureen or oval vegetable dish. The funny thing was that I didn’t even care about this piece and it sat very precariously on a box up above where I park my car. It could have easily crashed to the cement floor and broke–but luckily it didn’t.

I didn’t care about this piece because it was “as is” and was marked $5. Then, because it hadn’t sold the price was slashed to $1–so when I came along to buy it along with all the other pieces in the estate it only cost me about 35 cents. No great motivation to list this item!

But to get the garage cleaned out, I started listing the more bulky items last week. This piece that I thought was junk, turned out to be a very rare pattern Fruits of the Sea Soup Tureen Mottahedeh Oval Vegetable. We did decide that it is probably an oval vegetable instead of a soup tureen, because there is no hole for a ladle. There are ZERO oval vegetables listed on Replacements and if this were the soup tureen in perfect condition it sells for $415.99 on that same site. Score! All from a 35-cent purchase mixed in with an entire estate. Amazing.

Here is a photo of the piece. Click here to see if it is selling.

By the way, I started the auction price higher than my usual $9.99, because I am prepared to let it sit in my eBay store for quite some time to get my asking price. I only paid 35 cents!!!! And at the time of my writing this–71 people had already viewed the auction.

And from that same estate sale $4,000 purchase, this beautiful large figurine sold out of my eBay store for $199.00 last week. I paid $70 for it, and was prepared to wait for the right buyer. It took 6 months but was definitely worth the wait to get the price I wanted!

Click here to read more.

Don’t forget, the beauty of an eBay store is that you can afford to wait for the right buyer.

Example #2: I am still buying entire collections–but am now willing to spend into the $1,000’s. Do you all remember earlier this year when I stumbled across a Nike sales rep that was selling all their sample pieces? It was very interesting. They were asking between $5 and $25 per piece and there were 100s of pieces. All new with tags and most of the items were USC Trojan pieces. I call this “The USC experiment.”

I asked them to name me a price for all of them. They hemmed and hawed and finally said, “How about $5 each?” We counted and there were about 192 pieces. I paid $960 that day and hauled off some primo stock.

I gave away quite a few pieces to Houston, Peter, Melanie and my brother and still had a ton left over. I think to date I have sold about $2,700 worth of the USC pieces with some still remaining. Check out this jacket that I paid $5 for (I got about six of these in with the 192 pieces) that just sold last week!

Fleece Jacket, check it out here.

Also, my mom is helping me list clothing. I have a ton of it around and it sure helps to have an extra lister. She is great at it and we had about 30 extra Nike items that I hadn’t listed yet. They came with the USC items but were from other schools or just plain Nike. My mom got them all on this week and I think almost all of them have bids.

Check to see how well this piece did.

“The USC Experiment”: worked out quite well. I am estimating that my $960 will turn into about $4,500. And I gave away about 50 pieces!!! Can’t fight that–Fight on!!!

Example #3: I will spend over $5 for a single item

Last Saturday, I took my car to the car wash in the afternoon. Indy and Houston were with me so we wandered over to a thrift store while we waited. They were having an outdoor sidewalk sale with Christmas items. I didn’t find anything but wouldn’t you know that little bright eyes, Indiana, would.

There on the table was a Christmas Tree Pin. And it was signed. Price tag was $10. Quite steep for a little brooch. However, if you remember story #49 in The 3rd 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay–Ka-Ching you may remember another Christmas pin that Indy also found that sold for big bucks! How could I pass it up? And besides, I couldn’t lose anything because I started the bidding at $9.99.

Click here to see what it is up to.

At the time of my writing this ezine–109 people had already looked at it and 19 have it on their watch list! Pretty exciting. Thanks, Indiana! Of course, I will have to give her a percentage of my earnings so that she can buy more Webkinz.

Example #4 I will spend $20 for a single item

I was at an estate sale this past weekend and there was a Royal Doulton figurine on the table marked $25. This particular estate sale was run by a company that typically doesn’t deal at all (if you were at Live Boot Camp last month in La Quinta–you know exactly what I am talking about). Anyway, I got lucky and they took less than the asking price. I only paid $20.

I got on www.Replacements.com to find that this figurine retails for $95.95. So, I figured I could probably get 1⁄2 price on eBay. I started the auction at $9.99 because I knew that it would go up to at least $24.99 and I would get my money back. 68 people have looked at it at the time of this writing.

Check it out to see what it is up to. Isn’t it a cute figurine? Any Royal Doulton figurine is worth buying at a garage or estate sale for $20 (in my opinion).

Example #5 I will spend $30 to even $100 for a single item.

So, my mom and I started out our garage saling several weekends ago at a sale that wasn’t supposed to start until 8:00 am. We were there at 7:30 am and it was already going strong. I usually hate to be an early bird–I think it is rude–but I have also found that in Southern California many sales start early just because of the fact that they are all outside in the sunny weather and once set up–they get started.

I could tell that this was a sale with many expensive items. Some prices were high. I saw a cloisonné ginger jar on the ground with a $40 price tag written in masking tape–Yikes! I turned it over and it said Fabienne Jouvin Paris on the base. Any item made in France that was this quality was worth asking the seller about.

I said to the lady, “I have bought quite a few things from you today, would you give me a break on this price?” I patiently waited and she said, “How about $30”? Why not, I knew that I could get at least a $24.99 starting bid price.

I am doing this a lot lately. Even though I think that something may be worth hundreds of dollars, I am still pricing it right at what I paid. 2 reasons. 1st–I won’t lose any real money and 2nd-it encourages bidding. If I had priced this piece at $50 or $100–I wouldn’t have gotten any bids. People want to be drawn into the fact that they may get a bargain. More bidders means more money. Don’t forget that!

Please click here to see what it sold for!

Finally, I hope that this article gets you thinking outside the box and help you to stretch your wings with spending money. I have certainly learned to stretch my wings and my wallet in the past few years. I think my confidence in my abilities grows with each day that I sell on eBay. I hope that yours does also!!!

Happy eBaying!

Lynn

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR ON YOUR WEBSITE? Yes, you may – just as long as you include all links as they are and append this complete blurb with it: The Queen of Auctions and eBay Power Seller, Lynn Dralle, publishes ‘eBay Tips & Tricks’ a weekly ezine with 10,000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump start your eBay business, make more money and have more time, get your FRE E tips now at www.thequeenofauctions.com

A big thanks to everyone who has already submitted a story! We are looking for more great stories of your eBay adventures. We know there are many great tales out there, so please submit your story along the lines of the stories from the 100 Best Books and a great side story with photos will help. If we use your story, you will receive a $35 merchandise credit on my web site and you will have your story featured–along with your user ID–in my ezine! It may also eventually end up in a published book!

Happy eBaying!!

Lynn

For more great eBay tips and stories, visit my web site at:

http://www.thequeenofauctions.com

Lynn is an experienced eBay Power Seller, author and teacher. If you want to know the eBay tips, tricks and tools that Lynn uses for buying and selling at online auction click here.

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