Lynn’s eBay ezine Volume V, issue number 9

In the elevator on the way to the ball field, I was talking to Houston about his cleats and making sure he had both molded and steel so that he would be able to pitch.

Here is Houston pitching for the first time on the 13 & under Longhorns.

A gal in the elevator looked at me and asked, “Are you Lynn?” “Yes,” I said, and introduced myself. Her name was Debbie. She has a web site to help people sell kids’ toys, kids’ and adult clothing. She reads my ezine and it was wild! We are going to do a teleseminar together next month (on May 13th) for the Queen’s Court members’ gift. If you are not a Queen’s Court member, you can pre-purchase it here and get your questions posted now.

Here is an email I got from her, with a link to her website.

Hi Lynn!

Thank you SO much for being so kind in the elevator at Pechanga. How random was that?! I had always thought that I might meet you some day, but I wasn’t really prepared that day!! It was weird; I had thought of you that morning while we were watching our son at his little league game.

Anyway, I love your ezines and THANK YOU for sharing your knowledge! I also have a website, www.ebay-mommy.com, but my fan base is nowhere near yours. I mostly sell clothing and toys and the occasional collectible (thanks to you!).

I love your stories about your grandmother and can’t wait for your 4th 100 Best book. She reminds me of my late grandmother. :o) Keep up the great work and I look forward to seeing you again some time soon.

Debbie

I get recognized quite a bit in Palm Desert and Bellingham, WA, but I have never been recognized in Temecula! As we walked out of the elevator, Houston said, “That was so cool!” I should have taken a photo with her. Oh well! Next time.

I have been selling Tommy Bahama shirts for my friend Juliette and can’t believe this one went so high.

Click here.

Don’t miss our Teleseminar on Wednesday, May 13th at noon. It will be a lot of fun! Queen’s Court members can start posting questions for Debbie on the forum.

‘How To Clean Up Your Kids’ Rooms And Prosper‘

by Lynn Dralle, The Queen of Auction

It has been crazy around here (as always) but within a span of about six months, Indy has outgrown Groovy Girl Dolls, American Girl Dolls and Hannah Montana. She refuses to wear any of her clothing that has Hannah Montana on it. Unfortunately, that was about 80% of her wardrobe.

I sent a ton of their items to charity, but I kept everything that was eBay worthy. I hope this article helps you to attack your kids’ rooms and make some money!

Tip #1. Have a plan of attack and get your kids to do as much of the work as they can.

I asked both kids to go through their rooms and weed out any books and toys that they didn’t use anymore. I also asked them to go through all their clothing and make a pile of what they did not wear any more or what would not fit. In Indy’s case, a lot of it was just because of the brand names. She is ten, but I feel a teenager on my hands!

Tip #2. Go through those piles with them or have another adult help you.

The piles were larger than I could have ever imagined. Wow, kids grow so fast and things that fit them six months ago just don’t anymore. I am so deep into writing this new book (which can be preordered here for cheaper than our issue price) that I didn’t have time to address the volcano piles in the upstairs hallway.

Speaking of volcanoes, check out this volcano that I helped Houston and his buddy Ian make for Science class (they got an A+). While my mom was here and my brother was out visiting, we had a Hawaii day. All day in the pool, Hawaiian pizza, Hawaiian music and we set off the volcano for fun (all it takes is a huge bottle of Diet Coke and Mentos). What a blast! Literally.

Enter Mor Mor (my mom and their grandma). She did an awesome job helping to sort the items. She first helped each kid pick out what should go in a memory box. We let them choose certain outfits that were very important to them and then we pack them away in memory boxes in the garage. As an example, for Houston, we are keeping all of his baseball jerseys since it has been such a huge part of his life.

Next, my mom helped them make a pile for charity. Finally, she helped them make piles for what to sell on eBay.

Tip #3. Anything brand new with tags or salable on its own should be listed individually.

My mom wrote up all the items that were in great condition or new with tags individually on I Sell sheets and I took the photos. Then I put all the pictures on a disc so that she could list for me from Carmen’s computer in the office.

Here is one of the first items to get a bid. I wouldn’t have predicted this in a million years but you just never know!

Click here to see this auction.

Tip #4 Sort everything else into lots by size or brand.

Next, I had my mom make lots of clothes all sorted by size. The lots ranged from 4 pieces to 16. We also made a huge lot of Groovy Girl dolls and accessories. That will be listed later this week. We were focusing on clothing this time.

Remember story #26 from the 1st 100 Best book? It was about clothing lots and here it is for you to read.

Click here for the story.

But back to 2009 and our mess of clothing to sell. Here is a photo of some of the grocery bags with all the clothes sorted by size. Sorry the photo is so blurry. I should have taken more but am so focused on the new book!

Here is one of our best Hannah Montana clothing lots. We have had people email us about shipping to Denmark! How cool is that?

My goal is to sell all 15 of the lots for at least $9.99 each. And the 25 single items for at least $9.99 each. That would net me $400 and go a long way to help me pay my mom for all her awesome help this week! This way I get the items out of my house quickly and if they don’t sell, I will move them into my eBay store for $24.99 and up.

I hope this article helped you to see how cleaning up your kids’ rooms can be profitable. Also, I can’t wait for our teleseminar with Debbie in three weeks because she is going to have so much great insight and tips on how to make these types of auctions even better. Don’t miss it. If you are a Queen’s Court member it is free. If not, click here to sign up now and ask your questions.

Happy eBaying!

Lynn