Yesterday Marty Weil announced that he would no longer use eBay as a sales venue in his post The eBay Buyer’s Market.

In part, Marty states:

“I can no longer justify selling there. For me, eBay isn’t profitable.

In the early days, my eBay auctions stood a reasonable chance. It seemed like a ‘fair’ market. Somewhere along the line, things shifted. More often than not–from my vantage point–the savvy and patient buyer gets the better end of the deal. And that’s why I still recommend eBay as the venue for purchasing ephemera.

It’s a buyer’s market.“

There is no question that, since it’s inception, eBay has brought about some drastic changes in the collector market. And, nowhere are those changes more visible than in the collectibles market.

Prior to eBay, for all but a small number of collectors and dealers, the collectibles market was a local market, existing only within a one or two hundred mile radius of where they lived. To a somewhat lesser degree, the same was true for the antique market. Only the most serious collectors and dealers ventured outside their local area to attend regional or national shows.

With the advent of eBay all that began to change and as eBay grew, those changes mushroomed.

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There were twenty-some garage sales in Grand Forks that started today and I left home at 6:50 this morning with my list of sales and a cup of hot coffee in hand.

About two hours later, I walked into a double garage with two middle-aged women a few steps behind me. I began looking over the tables along one wall of the garage and moved past the blue resin bear pictured to the left. I noticed the bear but didn’t pay any attention to it.

Apparently one of the women did, because as I knelt down to flip through a large box of LPs, the following conversation started:

“Look at that cute bear. He sure has a long neck.”

“He’s heavy too. And look, there’s something written on the bottom.”

A small bell goes off in my head. Then I think, ‘lots of junk glass is marked.’

“What does it say?”

“Saschab.” (she pronounced it Sash-hab)

My inner voice says ‘never heard of saschab - junk glass.’

“My sister would probably like him. How much is he?”

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In one of the comments made to yesterday’s post The $10,000 Garage Sale eBay Challenge Diane asked the question, “do you have a budget for this challenge, an amount you plan on spending?”

Diane’s question brings up a good point.

The majority of people don’t have an unlimited amount of money they can randomly spend on inventory for eBay. They have budgetary restraints and are trying to bootstrap their eBay business. For many, those budgetary restraints may mean they have only $5, $10, or $15 a week they can spend for inventory. If you are in a situation like that, it’s easy to begin to feel as though what you are trying to do is never going to work. In fact, at times, it can be downright disheartening.

I know. I’ve been there, done that, been down that road myself.

I originally got started going to garage sales because, due to circumstances beyond our control, my wife and I were in the midst of a financial nightmare. We were too proud to declare bankruptcy or ask for help from family members. Through a series of events, I decided to try buying things at local garage sales and reselling them at a small once-a-month flea market held during the summer months here in Grand Forks.

There were many Saturday mornings when I left home with $3 in my pocket and an eighth of a tank of gas. When one or the other was gone, I was done shopping for the week.

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May 1st marks the beginning of a new eBay challenge with the start of The $10,000 Garage Sale eBay Challenge. Readers who followed The $1000 A Month Thrift Store eBay Challenge will find there are a couple of twists incorporated into this one.

The goal of the Challenge will be to generate $10,000 in net profits selling items I’ve purchased at garages sales during the five months between May 1 and October 30, 2007 on eBay. Rather than use a monthly goal like the Trift Store eBay Challenge had, the goal for this Challenge will encompass the entire five months. The reason for this is that the number of garages sales in this area of the country starts small in the spring, peaks in June and July, gradually tails-off through August and September, and, depending upon the weather, pretty much comes to an end sometime in October.

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Several weeks ago, in a post titled “Profiting From Mass Market Religious Fiction“, I talked about the popularity on eBay of many of the authors in this field. One of the more popular authors in this genre is Lauraine Snelling who has written six series and several single novels that can be found at garage sales, thrift shops, and book sales and which can sell well on eBay.

Nearly all the the book I see by Mrs. Snelling are in very good to fine condition with unbroken spines. So, if you buy these it is probably a good idea to pass on any that appear a little rough.

Here’s a list of the titles in each series and what they usually sell for.

Secret Refuge series (3 books)

• Daughter of Twin Oaks
• Sisters of the Confederacy
• The Long Way Home

The Secret Refuge series normally brings between $10 and $20 for the three volume set on eBay.

Return To Red River series (3 books)

• A Dream To Follow
• Believing The Dream
• More Than A Dream

The Return To Red River series normally brings between $10 and $20 for the three volume set on eBay.

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Ten years ago today, covered in mud, I got home at 11:30 PM after spending the previous fifteen and a half hours sandbagging in the Riverside Park area of Grand Forks. Hungry, after a quick shower, I fixed two cold roast beef sandwiches from some leftovers in the refrigerator, turned on the TV, and sat down to eat and watch the latest news updates.

It wasn’t good. Within the last half hour the flood waters of the Red River had made an overland end-run around the golf course in the Lincoln Park area of town and were slowly moving down Belmont Road toward downtown. There was talk about evacuating the County Jail and also flood-control headquarters in City Hall.

That’s when I knew I was going to get wet. The only question was, did I need to get out now, or could I wait until the next morning? From the reports on TV it was obvious the immediate problem wasn’t the dikes, but rather the water that was coming around the golf course. About 12:30 I decided to walk the two blocks from my house to the river and see what it looked like there. Getting home after checking the river, I checked the news again, and decided I could wait until morning. At 1:00 I set the alarm for 6:00 and got into bed.

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On May 14, 2007 postage increases will go into effect in the US. Depending upon the kind of merchandise you sell on eBay, some of these increase could have a dramatic affect on how you do business. While the scheduled increases are pretty much across-the-board, there are two areas that could significantly impact your eBay business - rates for international shipping and larger Priority Mail packages that are shipped to a destination 600 miles or more from your location.

During the week of April 30 to May 4, the US Postal Service is sponsoring mailing seminars at locations all around the country.

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The garage sale season in Grand Forks began with a whimper last weekend with three sales opening on Friday and seven more on Saturday. It must have caught most of the area’s serious buyers by surprise. I didn’t see any of them Friday morning. Saturday, there was one person who would be considered serious competition.

Unfortunately none of the sales offered anything to get excited about. I picked up a few books that went on Amazon and that was the extent of my purchases. The temperatures were in the mid 40s both mornings and the sun was shining so even though there wasn’t much to buy, after the cold, rainy, spell we’d been in it felt nice to be outside.

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As a result of a recent email from someone else who blogs about eBay I went on a hunt for other eBay related blogs that 1) are currently active, and 2) aren’t simply Adsense farms. The list I’ve come up with so far is pretty small.

If you know of someone who regularly blogs about selling on eBay, of if you do so yourself, I’d appreciate it if you would let us know about it by adding a comment to this post. Thanks.

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