Yesterday’s Featured article, Selling Taunton Press Magazines On eBay provided information on a few specific magazines that are relatively easy to find and sell well on eBay.

Selling magazines on eBay can be a profitable eBay income stream. If you have little, or no, experience selling magazines on eBay here are some general guidelines regarding buying and selling magazines that will, hopefully, help you make more profits from the magazines you sell on eBay.

Why People Buy Magazines

The people who will be buying the magazines you offer on eBay will usually be doing so for one of several different reasons. Having an understanding of why most people magazines will allow you to make better buying decisions regarding what to buy and what to pass up.

Most people who buy magazines on eBay do so for one of the following major reasons.

They are interested in the subject of the magazine - They may either collect magazines about one particular subject or it may be that they collect magazines associated with another collecting interest they have. Some of the more popular subjects people collect are various sports, airplanes, automobiles, boating, farming, medicine, model building, railroads and model railroading, architecture, interior design, furniture, movies, pets and animals, science, automobile and other forms of racing, science fiction, art, etc.

Authors – Over the years, the first appearance of many well know, and collectible, authors have been in magazines. People who collect books by these authors are often also interested in obtaining magazines that contain the earliest works of these authors.

Illustrators – Many highly collectible artists either got their start by providing either cover illustrations for magazines or illustrating stories in the magazines themselves. The works or other illustrators, who are now highly collectible, appeared almost exclusively on or inside magazines.

Advertising – Coke and other soft drink ads, automobile ads, motorcycle ads, Cream of Wheat ads, Wrigley’s Gum, firearms, etc. – these are examples of some of the advertisements that were found in magazines and have become highly collectible today.

Paper dolls and cut outs – Many of the earlier children’s and women’s magazine regularly featured paper dolls and other cut outs that have now become highly sought after. Some examples would be Betsy McCall, Dolly Dingle, Kewpie doll cut outs, the Sun Bonnet Babies, the Dionne Quints, etc.

Historical events – The Revolutionary War, assassinations, women’s suffrage, the moon landings, World Wars I & II, the Civil War, etc. There is always interest in historical events that have shaped world history.

First issues – It’s surprising how many people collect the first issues – Vol. 1 No. 1 – of magazines. In many cases the value of the Vol. 1 No. 1 of a magazine is three to four times that of other issues including the second issue, which, while it may have significant value, seldom reaches the prices obtained for No. 1. (It should be noted, that some magazines don’t have a Vol. 1 No. 1 because they came about through a name change to an existing magazine, and the numbering system was continued from the previous title.)
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Earlier this year I wrote about selling vintage magazine ads and articles on eBay and wrote a brief update to the original article.

This morning, while making my weekly Tuesday morning visit to a small local antique mall. I purchased the November 1921 and February 1905 issues of The Century Magazine along with a bound volume of the May through October 1887 issues of the same magazine. The covers are missing from all three pieces and the binding of the bound volume has other problems also. I paid $3.00 for each of the magazines and $8.00 for the bound volume.

The two original posts resulted in ongoing conversations with several readers about the feasibility and profitability of selling this kind of stuff as part of a profitable eBay business. Because of that, I thought I would use these three items as a sort of mini case study of this eBay business model.

Over the course of the next week to ten days, I’ll disassemble the magazines and place the ads, the articles, and some of the short stories in my eBay store. Then for the next six months there will be monthly updates disclosing all expenses incurred, sales made, and what the net profits are from the venture.

Photo by Chad Johnson

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Recently a small group of mechanical bank trade cards were offered by The RSL Auction Co. in a live auction on eBay.

Nearly all trade cards are collectible to some extent, but mechanical bank trade cards are deemed by most collectors as the most desirable of all trade cards due to their rarity and exquisite graphics.

Here is what was offered along with their final selling price. You can click on the name of each card to see what each looks like. Note: the pictures are not of the actual cards sold.

• Watch Dog Safe mechanical bank trade card - sold for $6000.00
• Bad Accident mechanical bank trade card - sold for $3250.00
• American Eagle mechanical bank trade card - sold for $2800.00

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How To Turn IRON Into GOLD

One of the great things about selling on eBay is how you can quickly build a consistent income stream and I’m pretty sure that you read this blog because of all the specific information that teaches you how to find items you can resale for profits of 300% - 1000% and more!!

I’d like to share a wonderful eBay sales stream that puts CASH in your pocket over and over again from rusty old cast iron!!
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Hello all,

As you might have read in an earlier post Gary will be away on a wonderful fly fishing trip in Canada during the week June 9-16 and in his absence Gary asked if I’d be willing to post to the Auction Rebel blog so it wouldn’t just sit without any activity during that time.

Being a longtime collector and dealer in antiques and vintage collectibles, I’ve followed Gary’s insights for many years (long before the Auction Rebel), mainly because I found his views of using eBay to build a profitable business much like my own.
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Peter Hathaway Capstick (1940-1996) left the white collar world of Wall Street early in his life for the world of hunting and fishing which he loved. After a short period of time in South America, he landed in Africa where he spent most of his life hunting big game and guiding other hunters. In the latter years of his life he wrote several books about Africa and big game hunting.

He had a writing style that attracted readers, and he quickly developed a loyal following. Today, his books are just as popular, if not more so, with outdoorsmen and others interested in Africa and big game hunting. While I’m not aware of any huge winners among his books, like Gene Hill, all of them will sell on eBay or Amazon and are worth picking up when you find them for a dollar or so. What also make them attractive is that they aren’t rare, and you will find them at garage sales, book sales, and estate sales.

Probably none of his titles will reach three figures, the first edition of a few of them will come close, and any of them will sell in the $15 to $35 range if in nice condition and properly described.

Here’s a list of Peter Capstick’s titles I’m aware of:

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I’ve been asked a few times how I go about deciding whether to list a book on Amazon, as an eBay auction, or put it in my eBay store. What follows are some general guidelines that I use when making a decision regarding where I will place a book I’ve just purchased.

For the purpose of this post, I’ll be talking only about single books and not those I might buy to sell as a lot. I’ll also be talking only about non-fiction because 99% of the books I buy fall into that category. Additionally, as a general rule, I’m willing to spend $1.00 or less for any book that appears to have the potential of selling for $20.00 or more, unless there’s a valid reason not to.

The process actually begins before I actually buy a book and by the time I’ve paid for the book I often already have a pretty good idea of where I’m going to place it, although that may change by the time I list it.

If I’m at a venue where the competition for books is heavy, such as a FOL or AAUW book sale, I don’t use ScoutPal. I buy based upon the $1.00/20.00 rule mentioned above. In a slower paced environment such as a thrift shop, if a book I’m interested in has an ISBN it gets checked via ScoutPal. If the lowest used price is $20.00 or more, I buy the book. If there is no ISBN, I apply the $1.00/20.00 rule. At this point, based upon the subject of the book, and whether it has an ISBN or not, I pretty much know where it will end up, but each book will be re-assessed before listing it.

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I recently acquired the rights to a short report called “Cracking The eBay Store Traffic Code” that talks about different ways to drive more traffic to your eBay store.

Any Auction Rebel readers who would like a free copy can download it by right clicking eBay Store SEO and then clicking on “Save Target As”. The report is in PDF format so you will need Adobe Reader to view it.

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Over the last two years I’ve been watching a fairly new collectible sub-niche on eBay gradually grow. This is an off-shoot of the typewriter ribbon tin niche and the sub-niche is typewriter ribbon boxes. You can find these at antique shops/malls, antique shows, and flea markets. Most dealers aren’t yet aware of what these boxes are selling for on eBay which means there is currently a window of opportunity for those able to take advantage of it.

I’ve put together a short six page special report, in PDF format, about typewriter ribbon boxes and am offering it to readers as a Christmas present in appreciation of your loyal readership.

You can download your copy of “The Typewriter Ribbon Box Special Report” simply by right clicking on the link below and saving the file to your computer.

You will need Adobe Reader in order to be able to read the special report. More than likely it’s already installed on your computer, but if it isn’t you can download the latest version at no cost.

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The May issue of the Magazine Gold Newsletter has been mailed and should be in subscriber’s mail boxes. If you haven’t received your copy, please email me and let me know so I can insure it reaches you as quickly as possible.

If you haven’t already subscribed, the second issue will still be available for until May 12, after which it will no longer be available.

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