Another eBay ??

[LiLPrincess]

I'm having a garage sale in a few weeks. I was planning to sell my beanie baby collection during the sale but I'm starting to wonder if eBay might be a better way to go!?

I went to the website and got totally overwhelmed with all the choices.

Is there an eBay for dummies? Can anyone talk me through this? How do I start and what stupid mistakes should I avoid?

 

[Luv2Roam]

Personally, I think Yahoo Auctions is more user friendly. But there is more traffic at Ebay.
I think Ebay has a tutorial. At least a good help section. It is overwhelming, but play around with it.
I would not be surprised is there was an Ebay for Dummies book!

 

[TinkerbellRules]

I would look to see what the beanies are selling for on Ebay before I went to all that trouble. From what I've seen around here, you can't give them away. Seems the "value" of the beanies aren't there anymore. I've seen tons in garage sales. Maybe Ebay would be a better option, but I'd check first. We bought our beanies so that my DD could play with them, not for the temporary value. The first one I bought for her was the USA donkey. I said "yes, I'll buy it since it has a flag on it. It's better than some stupid beanie". Little did I know I let her cut BOTH tags off and a $500 beanie went to $0 Oh, well.

 

[ceecee]

Beanies are really cheap around our area at garage sales. Our neighbor (who was an avid collector for resale) had tubs of them at his garge sale. We got all the dogs we didn't have (my daughter plays with her dogs constantly) for $3.00 each. I've sen some on e-bay going really cheap as well, the previous post is right....go to e-bay and check prices. It's really easy to use, once you do it. It will walk you through when you're listing the item. (don't forget the ebay/paypal/billpoint fees)

 

[LiLPrincess]

Thanks everyone! I think what I'll do is price them cheap and see how many sell during the garage sale. Then I'll look at doing eBay or Yahoo to try and sell the rest.

 

[katefromny]

There actually is a book titled "The Complete Idiot's Guide to EBAY". I saw it at Wal-Mart the other day and thumbed through it briefly before my kids pulled me away. Looked pretty comprehensive though.

 

[SalandJeff]

Ebay is very easy to use. Just look around at some of the other auctions for beanies or any other items you're trying to sell to get an idea of how people are doing this. Pictures really help, although on beanies may not be absolutely necessary if people know what you are selling by the description. Make sure you give good descriptions, tell sellers what the condition of item is, are tags on, were items played with or displayed, etc. Also, let sellers know if you expect them to pay for shipping and what type of payment you'll accept.

Look around on the site and read the sections on "selling your items". I don't think you need to buy a book to do this (and if you buy one, you're cutting into your profits!!!!).

Good luck.

 

[Debbie in Townsville]

I don't know anything about beanies, but when I am looking up prices I look at the closed auctions. A lot of bidders don't bid until the last minute, so the closed auctions are the only way to accurately see prices. After you do a search, below the search text box, click SHOW COMPLETED ITEMS, then I click LOWEST PRICES FIRST. It's a good way to get a quick look at the price break when items sell and when they don't.

Good luck!

 

[Humpbacks1962]

I'd definitely sell them through ebay. Get a feel for what they are selling for first, then start the bid at a lower amount, not what they sell for! You'll get more bids that way and the occasional dum dums who may struggle at the last minute, raising your price.

In any case, you'll get more money that way than if you held a tag sale, where people generally do not want to pay over a few bucks for anything.

Wanda