My Alter Ego is Making Some Money...

... and she's getting good feedback too!  I've made about $65 so far with my second eBay account (the one for selling pre-owned, non-designer stuff - and my stash of ugly gifts) and have 100% positive feedback.  Ok, so I've only got 5 feedback so far but still!  This account is really easy to manage because I don't worry as much about all the TINY details of packing and sending people's stuff.  I don't stress if I don't send the item RIGHT THIS SECOND but rather the next business day just like I've stipulated in the listing.  I don't accept returns and I don't stress about listing items that are less than perfect as long as I've disclosed it.  In fact, I recently sold a cashmere sweater with a hole in it.  The lady who bought it LOVED it.  She didn't care about the hole!  All she cares about is she got an awesome cashmere sweater for $16.

So, all in all, things are good for anonymous eBay username number two.  Now, I know some of you are really curious to find my alter ego on eBay, but I think I'll keep it to myself for a little while longer.  At least until I sell all the stuff that I don't want my mother-in-law to see. :)

Making eBay Fun Again

Ever since I moved into buying inventory to sell on eBay, I've been playing really safe.  Listing items Buy It Now, shying away from auctions, that sort of thing.

I decided last night I need to change my strategy, because this Buy It Now bullshit is really BORING!  No matter how many times you look at the price on your Blackberry throughout the day, it never changes.  Here's what I'm doing.  I listed about ten items last night, including the awesomely awesome Christian Louboutin shoes and one of my favorite Kalah clutches.  I listed most of the items for my breakeven price, although I did decide to take a chance with a few of them.

Already the excitement levels have shot up significantly!  Overnight, a few watchers started popping up.  Based on the number of views and watchers, I can already tell some of these items are going to be highly successful.  Some of the others, unfortunately, will require a little Tweeting and some publicity around the office, but I'll give it my best shot.  Check the auctions out - they're in the widget to the right of this post - and tell me what your favorite item is!

Soooo.... now that I have auctions going, don't you guys think it's time to play over-under again??  It's been a while, although most of you never really got into it.  Let's give it another shot, shall we?

I'm Officially LEGIT - My First Joint Venture!

I've been keeping secrets from you.  Now that we know each other better, I think I might be ready to share.  My "secret supplier" is actually the clearance rack at a local factory outlet, which is why I am SO excited about what I'm about to tell you.

For the longest time, I've been an admirer of a really trendy but small designer and importer of luxury handbags called Kalah.  They have an INCREDIBLE collection of bags and accesories, all hand made in Nicaragua.  I learned about them because the owner and designer is a friend of mine's sister-in-law, and my friend was always sporting the most envy-inducing bags, including the one you see in the right.

Well, since Kalah is a small but growing brand, and considering I have a small "in" with the owner, I thought I might have an opportunity to sell some of their bags on eBay or Bonanzle (and maybe get a couple for myself at a reduced price - wink wink).  They have all the qualities of an eBay best seller:

1) They're unique.

2) They are reasonably priced.

3) They're one size fits all.

Well, I spoke to Kalah's owner this afternoon and GUESS WHAT???  She's willing to let little old me carry some of her products in my stores!  Up until now, I've managed to procure my items either by selling my own stuff or my friends' stuff, or by reselling at a mark-up things I buy from the clearance racks and outdoor markets, so as you can imagine the profit I can fairly collect is minimal.  I've said it before and I'll say it again - for me, the secret to selling on eBay has been not to get greedy. 

So you can image how thrilled I am to finally get a legit supplier, and for a super high quality product to boot!  Plus, what I love most about this joint venture is that because I am a wholesaler I can offer these bags at a modest mark-up and still boast absolutely fantastic prices on a great, great item.  It's win-win...win!

Wish me luck!!!  I'm sure you'll hear about how this goes!

My eBay Business Plan Phase I: Selling Personal Items

I realized this morning that last night I dove into the details of my eBay exploits (or lack thereof) so quickly that I neglected to tell you about my master plan. So, I thought I would dedicate this post to describing how I plan to grow my eBay empire from a source of occasional pocket change into a good complement to my existing income.

First things first, though. Here are my stats.

Success in business is often grounded in your ability to set short and long term goals for yourself, and the same goes for eBay. However, I need to figure out how I'm currently doing so I can set a realistic short term goal for myself. Let's get started.

Income Statement

As of now, my eBay sales grand total is close to $143. I have sold 16 items since January 31st, which means my average selling price per item is just under $9.

Gross Revenue: $142.90

Average Sale Price: $8.90

From that $143, I have also paid $16 in sales fees to eBay and $10.70 to Paypal. Now, assuming I've broken even on shipping (which I haven't, but let's assume for simplicity's sake), that would make my total profit $116.20.

Operating Cost: $26.70

Operating Profit: $116.20

Operating Margin: 81%

Profit per Item: $7.26

So, in the last 45 days I have sold 16 items for an average of $9 per item and made a profit of 81% on each one of those. The other thing I need to tell you is that not every item I list sells. In addition to the 16 items I sold, I have listed 6 other items that did NOT sell, meaning that my conversion rate on listings right now is 72%.

That means that ceteris paribus (hee hee - paribus), if I list roughly sixteen items in a month, I will make $77 that month.

Goals

Given what I've learned and the stats we've just gone through, my goal before I move on to Phase II of my eBay Business Plan (eBay arbitrage) is to increase my eBay profit from $77 per month to $250 per month within the next 4 months.

How am I going to do that you ask? Stay tuned! Now that we have this hygiene out of the way, I promise my entries will get more interesting. Our next installment: Unsold items - the root causes of listing failure.