Magic Ebay Sale

For those who are not interested in hearing about my Ebay exploits you can skip this post all together.

Another month, or rather another 2 months and another Ebay sale. Two months later on the same day of the month I made a sale on Ebay Yay! This time it was a lot of two Magic: The Gathering collectible card game cards. A Summon Mesa Pegasus and A Summon Pearled Unicorn both cards Unplayed and in excellent condition that I had gotten from the card collection of a friend's son. The pair sold for 5 bucks ($4.99) and shipped for an additional 5 bucks ($4.95 actual shipping) minus Ebay fees I brought in $8.49 minus the shipping I made $3.54. Not bad. My Ebay store now has 72 items in it.

Update: Added To Ebay

 On the weekend of 06 Aug I did some listing for my Ebay. I added some comic book super heroes trading cards at fixed prices, and a bunch of Magic: The Gathering cards auctions, singles and 2 card lots (plus one 4 card lot) with 99¢ opening bids. My number of items before my listing spree were at 36 I added 13 over the weekend bringing my total listed items to 49. Then I scheduled auctions (which adds a 10¢ fee) 5 per day to start at Midnight Monday morning until Midnight Friday morning. My item total is now 75. The auctions I have recycled for a second run and then I will change them to fixed price listings at slightly higher prices. I don't have any exceptionally rare ones so my prices will be higher than what they are actually worth. Heck the 99¢ opening bids are more than what most of them are worth. Definitely long term suckers.

The number of items listed doesn't really matter but the ore that is listed the better your chances of actually selling something. Thinking about it doesn't move things.

I don't know if I've said it here or not, but at times I think listing stuff at Ebay is fun. What isn't fun is when you have to make some sort of complicated correction or addition that Ebay requires that doesn't even relate to what is being sold or is some unneeded minute detail.

I did do a new "Up On Ebay" video for my YouTube, but haven't uploaded it yet.I don't have many followers there because I rarely do videos so it won't get much traffic. UPDATE: I uploaded Episode 3 of Up On Ebay! after I had already scheduled this update post to be published. So I did a little editing on this post.

WoooWhooo! I sold one of the auctions on the second round. A1997 Topps Basketball Kevin Garnett Graded RC card #148 graded by FGS Gem Mint 10 at the opening 99¢ bid plus $5.00 shipping and some sales tax. My store now has 74 items.

I also sold a book Roger Zelazny "Trumps of Doom" for $8.99 plus $5.00 shipping actual shipping was $5.50 total income to bank account after Ebay fees and tax was $10 and some change. Now have 73 items in store.

Ebay Reselling Update: September 2021

EBAY Reselling Update:
September 2021 Sales

My last Sales update April 2021 I had 1 sale and 39 listings in the store. 

So What Sold in Sep 2021?

1. The Heechee Saga: Heechee Rendezvous Bk. 3 by Frederik Pohl (1985, Paperback) $4.95 Plus $4 shipping

Total: $4.95

I sold just 1 item, been months since I've added new listings so no sales for a long time. I keep "thinking" of listing, wanting and plan to list but haven't done so. Anyway this book was bought by someone in Canada and with the prices of USPS first class shipping to Canada I lost a ton on this. In the faith of openness it cost me $21.25 to ship USPS First Class to Ontario Canada. I will no longer ship to Canada the only non US country I was shipping to. Now I will Only ship to US and US Territories that are part of the USPS system. 

After this shipping to Canada fiasco I went to edit an older listing I had and accidentally clicked "end listing". I immediately noticed and then had to go to my "ended" listings section and relist that older ancient listing. It's all good now.

I now have 38 store listings at a count of 48 units.

Some related links:

My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Ebay Reselling Update: April 2021

EBAY Reselling Update:
April 2021 Sales

My last Sales update Feb 2021 I had 2 sales and 41 listings in the store. I had no sales in March.

So What Sold in Apr 2021?

1. Number 10 Envelopes Red 25 count pack $4.99 Free Shipping

Total: $4.99

Item number 1 was the last package of colored envelopes.

In March I took down a listing for some basketball cards to make a trade I did over at the trading card data base (tcdb.com). The cards not in the trade I will need to relist sometime. For me unfortunately it looks like the 5 cards I was supposed to receive were either lost in the mail (if sent) or were stolen by porch pirates if it was a large package left at my door.

I now have 39 store listings at a count of 49 units.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Ebay Reselling Update: June 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
June 2020 Sales

Not much to report I continue to procrastinate in regard to adding new listings. I only sold 1 item in June and my Ebay store only has 19 items still. The item that sold was a pretty nice price. It was a book that I had gotten with a bunch of other books years ago. I forget when it was or how much the lot was or the exact total number of books. It was 20-30 science fiction books in the lot and I probably spent $1 - $2 per book. It wouldn't have been much more than that because that would mean spending over $40 for the lot and I would have been crazy to spend that much on the lot. Anyway when researching this book it surprised me when I saw that was apparently slightly rare. There were very few if any copies that had recently sold and they were either another copy or a copy with another book. I think there were only one or two copies that were even still listed. It seemed to comp for $20 - $30 maybe a little more if pristine condition. My copy sold for $25. Just when I was thinking of dropping the price down some to maybe $20 or a little less to try to force a sale, BAM it sold.

So What Sold in June 2020?

1. A Planet in Arms by Donald Barr (1981 Paperback) $25 plus shipping.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Ebay Reselling Update: May 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
May 2020 Sales

This does seem to be a regular standard thing now I guess.

I am now down to 20 19 items in my Ebay store. I continue to procrastinate in regard to adding new listings. It has been about two months since I have listed anything new. I need to reset my goals. Then I really need to make an effort to complete any goals I make. A few months back I thought it would be easy to do some more listing and be close to 100 listings near the beginning of April. If I had kept to some sort of routine of listing "x" number of items per week I could have easily done it. However I soon slipped back into my unmotivated procrastinating ways. Very very big sigh.

So What Sold in May 2020?

1. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
2. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 x3 ($4.50) Free Shipping

Update: It is now June and Hey I got another sale on the 5th that means I'll be making another one of these types of posts in about a month a few weeks. Number of items in my Ebay store is now down to 19.

I also have had an Ecrater Store for quite sometime. It has been stale for at least 10 years or so. They don't have all the fees Ebay does. You can list with no limits and no fees. You do have to do all the promoting of it yourself and they don't have all the traffic Ebay does. Amazingly it still seems to be a valid and viable site for some resellers. I did a little freshening up and updating to that store. Man some of those photos need to be updated or changed to scans.

Anyway I have definitely lost the motivation to list. This month I have been focused more on my music listening and trying to get back to reviewing at rateyourmusic. But that is an entirely different subject.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02
Ecrater Store: CaptKirk42 (AKA: Kirk's Knook)

Ebay Reselling Update: April 2020 Sales

EBAY Reselling Update:
April 2020 Sales

Well the world maybe in a strange state but Ebay is still functioning. So long as the USPS and other shipping services are deemed essential, sellers will still be able to ship stuff out to buyers. I really really need to do more listing. Even though I didn't make any new listings I did have a few sales near the beginning of April. It has slowed down because I haven't been listing new stuff. I have done a little updating current listings making some adjustments. For all my books listed I now have a scan photo of the book's spine and a scan of the copyright page to indicate which edition it is. So each of my book listings have pics of both front and back covers, the spine, and the inside copyright page. If there are any markings inside I'll post those as well.

I am now down to 21 items in my Ebay store. I wanted to get those extra book spine pics up before adding new listings because some of the stuff I'm planning on listing are more books. For some reason I kept procrastinating on doing that scanning. I do too much scan procrastinating. I think part of it is the process is tedious.

So What Sold in April 2020?

1. Unopened 1990 Univ of Notre Dame Football Trading cards 8 card pack: $1.50 Free Shipping
2. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
3. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 (x2) Free Shipping
4. Unopened 1990 Univ of Notre Dame Football Trading cards 8 card pack: $1.50 Free Shipping

I have 4 packs of the Babe Ruth Collection cards left in my store. I started with 9 packs of that.

Hopefully buy the time this post is published I will have more than just 21 items listed in my store.


Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

Ebay Reselling Update: March 2020 Sales and Stuff

EBAY Reselling Update:
March 2020 Sales

I am thinking of making this a regular or semi-regular series of posts. Might come up with a snappy pun-filled title. I don't want to make this an exclusive Ebay Blog though. It all actually depends on if I continue to make sales on that platform, which depend on a few obvious contributing factors like listing the items for sale and people actually buying the items. I also think in some ways I give too much info in these things sometimes. That is something else to ponder. Anyway another Month has gone by and with a smidgen of listing effort (I still need to pick my butt up and go to town on listing) I sold a few more things off of Ebay for March 2020.

Since I haven't been doing any listing of stuff my store is now down to only 22 items. I need to motivate myself to do more listing. I'll have more time to list in the next 2 weeks. There are a few delaying factors that I won't go into here online, or to anyone for that matter anywhere. Sometimes I don't inform others of some of my life's minutiae.

So What Sold in March 2020?

1. Unopened 2016 Leaf Draft 5 card pack Football Trading cards: $1 Free Shipping
2. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
3. Unopened 2016 Leaf Babe Ruth Collection 5 pack Baseball trading cards $1.50 Free Shipping
4. 2000 ECW Wrestling: Champion Clashers Stickers set 5 stickers $15 plus shipping*
5. The Stardust Voyages by Steven Tall 1975 paperback $6.99 plus shipping
6. Word Bringer by Edward Llewellyn 1986 paperback $4.45 plus shipping
7. The Inverted World by Christopher Priest 1974 paperback $2.99 Free Shipping

*The ECW wrestling stickers were originally sold in packages of the ECW Champion Clashers Action Figures packages. I don't know how many different figures there were in the set of figures. It was apparently random as to which sticker went with which figure at times. I think there is only the 5 stickers. I also think the ones I had gotten as part of a free collection I received from a friend. Probably from the 2nd or 3rd wave of cards from that collection. Also my original listed price was a bit high at $25 for the stickers. I didn't see any trace of the stickers being sold separately and some of the figures still mint on card/in box I think went for up to $25 with shipping included. The stickers sat at that price for a while. Then I noticed they had a watcher, after a week or so I decided to send the watcher an offer of $18 they immediately counter-offered with $15 still with the shipping attached. I thought for a while and later that evening accepted the counter-offer to get the stickers sold.

About a day and a half to 2 days after selling the ECW stickers I got a surprise of another buyer making a purchase of 3 books. One of the books had 3 watchers so someone watching that book decided to make a 3 book purchase. They paid the shipping I had on two of the books and the watched book had free shipping. At first I was going to refund some of the shipping, but I had largely underestimated the cost of shipping 3 books in one box, that ended up going 2 day shipping. I thought it was going to go first class, oops. So I actually paid double in shipping vs what I had charged for shipping.

I recently got a digital postal scale that can handle up to 25 pounds. Anything heavier than that I'll probably have problems lifting myself anyway. I was actually wanting to get one for 50 pound limit but that one was too damn expensive at Office Depot. I spent more than I really wanted to on the scale I got but what the heck? Now I need to find a good flat surface to use it on.

Back to the shipping costs thing. I am going to try to avoid doing the Free Shipping, or at least make sure the item I'm using it for is listed for $5.00 or more (and never goes on a discount sale). If the $2.99 book (the one that was being watched) had sold just by itself I would have lost money due to the shipping. As it is I think I might have broken even on the deal. I'm not exactly sure of the cost of goods since it was so long ago that I had bought that lot of sci-fi books but I made up for it some on the sales price of the books. The Paypal and Ebay fees cut into any total profit for the sale. I'm going to call that one even. The packs of cards that have Free Shipping I usually lose a little since I don't do PWEs for Ebay stuff and the minimum cost of a first class package is close to $4 now days. I still need to find that healthy shipping cost balance. I like to keep things relatively low since I myself don't like paying a ton for shipping. That scale I bought will help in that matter, that and putting the real item weight for each item instead of having everything listed at about an ounce or whatever.

OH and since I have delayed some in finishing this post to publish it, I sold one item from a multi count item (a pack of trading cards) on Wednesday 01 Apr 2020 which will insure there is similar kind of post at the end of this month.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

Ebay: More Selling Stuff and Ideas

CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post

So here is another post about Ebay and selling there and just some related stuff I want to talk about.

In my earlier post about getting back into the swing of Ebay selling I probably should have made a brief mention that in my earlier height of Ebay selling at one time I had reached the milestone of having 100 items Up On Ebay in my store. Then a few days after that I think the highest I had was 110 or 115. I only kept track of the fact that I had broken the 100 item milestone and for the briefest of moments whatever my real max had been. I forget how long I was at that height before the sales knocked it back down below 100, but I haven't been there since and I want to make having 100 items in my store inventory my standard lowest inventory point. My goal for March is to have the total of 100 items listed in the store. From there I want to keep that the basement limit. Currently as of this posts publishing my store item count is 26 items. So  74 items more to list.

In general when selling on Ebay you have to list new items regularly to get your items noticed and viewed as the newer listings get priority in the searches. It takes somewhere between a dozen and 2 dozen items to start picking up views and making a sale or two. The more your list the more that your items get seen and more importantly the more sales you make. You don't have to list things that are huge ticket items, but if you only list a few things here and there that are only about a dollar you won't make much or will have to list a ton of items to start making good money.

To stress this point for many years my Ebay Store has been sitting with only 6 stale items in it. 1 item only is a multiple "copies" of that item. A collectible button, pinback or as the say in The UK a "badge" I think patches are also usually called badges so that is a little confusing just as using the term "button" here in the US is. Is that a shirt button, or one of those collectible things that has a funny saying on it? Every few months one of those buttons will sell. I mentioned in the previous post that I had gotten the particular design from a huge lot of buttons (100 count at least but less than 200) I had gotten from an Ebay auction, back in the days when Ebay was mostly auctions. I don't recall how much I paid for the batch or how many of each button there actually were. I do recall this specific button I had at least 50 of it maybe as many as 60. It is now down to a 10 count. Even though the other designs from that particular lot I sold long ago, I still have a boat load of buttons that I will eventually list and try to sell, including a bunch of buttons from my personal collection. I used to be pretty big in collecting buttons but not any more.  But I digress.

So long story shortish During the month of February I actively started listing more starting with listing 2 items one day, skipping the next day adding 2 more items and so on. I started with the 6 stale listings (I updated most of the photos/scans) dropped the price of the button from $1.50 to 99¢, then added those first 2 listings making the item count 8, then 10, then 16 items then jumped to 20, then 24 and then jumping up to 30 items total. When I was at about 14 or 15 items one of the earlier items I had listed sold. It was a listing of multiples and about half the multiples sold in one sale. It was a pack of football trading cards. So I continued to add listings. I got up to 30 listed items and for February made 5 sales. I can't stress enough how that simple act of regular listing of items increases both the views of your listed items but also increases the sales. Going many months without making any new listings I would sell maybe one or two items a year (mostly that same button). Making 24 new listings over about 3 weeks I made 5 sales. So far in March I have made one sale (one of the packs of football cards selling it out) but I haven't added any new listings  The number of items Up On Ebay is only 26 right now. I have some things set aside to list but I need to scan them. Yes right now I have been scanning the items mostly because I don't want to do the whole camera phone uploading thing. My other items are still being viewed but views have slowed down without any new listings.

So some might be wondering what Sold?
February 2020:

1. 5 card pack of 2016 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 (x5)
2. 5 card pack of 2018 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 (x5)
3. 1984 copy of Dune by Frank Herbert Berkley Books: $5.50
4. 5 card pack of 2018 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 (x6)
5. Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg 1971 paperback: $4.99 plus shipping

March 2020:

1. 5 card pack of 2016 Leaf Draft Football Trading cards: $1 

You can check out my series of "Up On Ebay" YouTube videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02 I know the quality of my cheap old webcam sucks. It also is a bit dark. Most everything I currently have listed has been mentioned and shown in those videos. I also mention what has sold. At the time I made the videos I think there were only a couple of sales. Video 2 might have been made before I got the second sale.

I think I mentioned that for many months I've been planning to get back into actively listing stuff on Ebay. Part of my motivation was from watching a bunch of YouTube Resellers such as Lonnie of Garage Flips/Shed Flips, Kevin the Commonwealth Picker/Flipper (with his wife Heather The Blue Ridge Mama), Matt "Part-Time Pickers", Jon Cincinnati Picker, and also Bobby TheCapGuy. There are a few others I've seen and followed but some of them are more recent discoveries and to be honest I found after my motivation was already in motion.

Eventually I would love to have the number of sales those people have. They tend to average 10 sales a day most days during the week. They also have a ton of stuff listed I think 500 items is the lowest number I've seen for some of these people, maybe one of them has between 300-500 but for the most part they have no less than 500 items and upwards of 2,000 items. Most seem to have over 1,000 items (and 2 or 3 Ebay Stores). My goal as I have said is to get to a minimum of 100 items and keep on building from there.

Some related links:
My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42s Federation Trading Post
My YouTube channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02

Back To The Swing Of Ebay Selling

Lately I've been getting back into the swing of listing and selling on Ebay. I have been a member of Ebay for both buying and selling since their early days (my profile start date is marked as 30 April 1998) when they were just an online auction house. For the first 6 months or so I was just sort of idle. I had signed up and checked out what they were and then had temporarily forgotten about them. I forget what my first winning auction bid was for. I know some of the early bids I made were for of all things Beanie Babies. Some theatre acquaintances of mine were into buying Beanie Babies on Ebay that is how I discovered the site. I Never won any of those back then I didn't know you were supposed to bid your max bid and my max bid was usually under $20 when those things were selling for at least $25 every time. Eventually I would get into buying trading card stuff. Now I get all sorts of stuff from there. I try to avoid big or heavy items though due to the shipping expenses. I don't dare sell anything that is too huge to ship normally.

Probably about a year after I had first signed-up I started trying to sell. I started with some books some VHS video tapes, trading cards, and pinback buttons. I always would have to relist stuff. At the time as I said Ebay was just auction listings the basic time was 7 days there were 3 day listings and 10 day listings. I think the 3 day listings were more expensive to list, but could be profitable. The auctions would end and I'd have to "relist" them, of course Ebay charged a relisting fee (having an Ebay store got rid of the relisting fees) I think the first thing I sold has also been one of the biggest sales I have ever had. It was $20 or $25 for a lot 4 (I think it was 4 maybe it was 2 or 3) VHS tapes of the Animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon TV show. The bidder was getting them for their grandkids. Eventually I sold some other stuff some trading cards here and there, some books, buttons (pinback collector type not shirt type) and an occasional odd and end. $25 is the most I have listed one individual item for. Once I sold a package of some lanyards I had gotten from Staples that I didn't recall actually buying. I think they had been left on the counter by someone else and my pile of stuff had mixed up with those things. It was a pack of 5 that I sold for $10 max.

I have been paying for an Ebay store for many years. I forget when I first started it, but it was at the time when selling stuff at a "Buy It Now" fixed price was fairly new at Ebay. Having a store saves on the individual "listing" fees for making a single listing. In order to have it actually pay off however you need to have a minimum of 15-20 items for your items to get seen fairly regularly. Of course you actually need to get your items to sell for it to really pay off. You really need to be regularly "listing" items to keep your items at the top of the search lists. Back in the early days of Ebay stores you had to have at least one active Auction listing for your "In Store" fixed price items to be seen. Since at the time Ebay had no way to search for the fixed price items. That was many years ago and now most Ebay sellers and resellers rarely list any auctions. They list fixed price with "Best Offer" options. The more you list the more you sell. It isn't just a saying it is a cold fact. When I rarely listed anything I would rarely have anything sell. Only the occasional button, the supply of which I had gotten from a big lot of buttons that were about  7 different designs with multiples of each design, some only 5 or 6 buttons but most being about 12 buttons with the Express Start buttons being about 50 I think. I have 10 left of those but sold the other designs individually years ago.

For many months and a couple of years I have been meaning to add more listings and get back into actively selling on Ebay but kept putting it off. Partly due to the whole Photobucket changing the conditions on their free memberships and how much memory your albums can take up. It used to be at Ebay you needed an outside website for photo hosting, now you don't need an outside storage site unless you want to have more than 12 photos and use html for your listings.

At the beginning of February 2020 my store was at it's stale 6 items that I have had there for a few years. I then started adding some newer listings and I started getting more views on my previous items for sale. I added 2 listings then a couple days later 2 more listings then 4 or 5 listings and then I get a sale or two. Over 2 weeks I had gone from 6 items listed w/ very few sales per month. To 30 listings and now 5 sales during the month. As of this posting I have had those 5 sales in Feb (2 books, 3 orders of single packs of trading cards 16 packs total) and now have 27 items listed in my store. The Express Start pinback buttons (10 count), Some trading cards: a oouple of individual card lots, some packs and a few individual card lisitngs.

On YouTube I have started a series of videos called "Up On Ebay" where I mention recently listed items and try to show them as well. I also mention recent sales. I need to make some more listings before I do a new video and I will have to mention the last 4 sales all of which have shipped out now.

Related Links:
"Weird Al" Yankovic - The Ebay Song (fan made video there is no "official" video)
A version with a Boy Band acting the song out.

My Ebay Store: CaptKirk42's Federation Trading Post
My YouTube Channel: klandersen42
Up On Ebay Videos: Episode 01 | Episode 02