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How To Sell Antiques & Collectibles on eBayThe Online Seller's News, August, 2011, Volume 11, No. 15 Tips, Tools, News and Resources for eBay, Amazon and independent Online Sellers
Musings from eBay, Amazon, and beyond Our second article is about using Amazon’s FBA system to earn better margins on your eBay sales. But to do this you also have to sell on Amazon. If you want to learn how to sell on Amazon take a look at the Proven Amazon Course. This is the only course on the market that is focused on making money quickly with FBA. The course includes videos, eBooks, audio interviews, discounts on my books and third-party services and most importantly a forum where clients can post questions and have them answered by experts. One of our clients posted the question in our forum: “What is the most you have made doing this?” Here is one of the replies. It is a little long but she covers all the details. (Name removed to protect her privacy).
Check out the Proven Amazon Course here. Pete Bruckshaw is a Brit and a competitor of mine, but he is also a hugely knowledgeable eBay seller and trainer. If you have been reading my newsletter for a while, or if you have purchased my eBay training materials, then you know I recommend staying away from electronics such as iPads, iPhones and such. Well, Pete completely disagrees with me and he has a way to make money with these products. His training program is called Auction Profits Formula. I downloaded it and it works. Pete shows you several ways to actually make good money with these products. He normally sells this system for $29 but he is making a special offer for my readers for only $19. Auction Profits Formula is a somewhat different approach to eBay than I have but that is good as you get to see other ways of doing things. After eBay and Amazon fees –and of course your product cost –one of the largest expenses for sellers is the cost of shipping supplies. When you shop for mailers, boxes and packing material one of the big issues is the cost of shipping the supplies to you. You search the web, perform all sorts of cost comparisons and find the lowest cost supplier. But it turns out that you are in Pittsburgh and they are in California, so all the money you would save is eaten up in the cost of shipping. One of the companies I met at the IRCE show in San Diego is Mailers USA. They solve the problem. Not only are they one of the lowest cost suppliers on the web, they offer FREE shipping, a low-price guarantee and a money-back guarantee if you are not happy. I checked Mailers USA price against the company I have been using for the past two years and they will save me about 11% on my shipping supplies when I factor in shipping cost. Interesting news from Kabbage: Kabbage is the company I told you about last month that advances money to eBay & Amazon sellers. They are doing so well they have lowered the fees on cash advances. The drop is pretty significant. If you need money for your eBay and/or Amazon business, check out Kabbage.com. Lets get started with this month’s articles: [top] 1. How To Sell Antiques & Collectibles on eBay About ten years ago I wrote the first edition of How to Sell Antiques and Collectibles on eBay. It was a huge seller when it came out, but over time sales dropped off and I stopped revising and updating it. But lately Antiques and Collectibles have been one of the few areas on eBay that have remained strong. Sales are off and prices are lower than they were before the economy melted down, but they didn’t drop all that much and prices on good antiques and collectibles have been recovering nicely. Why sell antiques and collectibles rather than new merchandise? First of all you have to like being around, collecting or handling and selling antiques and collectibles –if not you should not do this –or buy my book. But if you do enjoy this niche, then one reason for doing this is to have fun. Remember it’s not work when you are doing something you enjoy. The other reason is profits. Once you learn how what and where to buy these items you can achieve markups of 100% and more. I have set the price at $27 – the same as my other eBooks, but I am running a special just for my readers for the entire month of August you can buy the book for only $17.00. Click here to learn more about How To Sell Antiques and Collectibles on eBay. [top] 2. Using Amazon FBA to Increase Your eBay Profit Margins Chris Green at FBA Power has come up with a great way to increase your eBay profit margin. I have tried this myself and it is working great. Here is a product I am selling on eBay and fulfilling from Amazon with 2-Day Free shipping. SOLAR POWER ULTRASONIC RODENT & PEST CONTROL DEVICES When I was selling this with ordinary shipping, I was making $6.90 on each sale after product cost, shipping and eBay & PayPal fees. Now I am making $10.29 on each sale. That is a 27% profit margin after eBay and Amazon fees and shipping. Here is Chris’s article: +++++++++ There is a lot of talk lately about Amazon’s fulfillment program called Fulfillment By Amazon, or FBA, but is it only online sellers who sell on Amazon who can get in on all the fun? The answer is no. A common misconception is that FBA is for Amazon only and while Amazon and FBA certainly go hand in hand, a seller’s items are not tied to the Amazon sales channel once they are stored in an FBA fulfillment center. Amazon’s FBA program has what is called Multi-Channel Fulfillment meaning that you can still list and sell your FBA inventory on other channels and fulfill those orders through FBA. This article has two ‘A-HA’ moments. The first one being that you can ship your FBA inventory to fulfill orders that you receive from any channel such as eBay or your own website at very competitive rates (likely less than what it costs you to do it yourself). Using Multi-Channel Fulfillment allows you to sell on any sales channel and still fulfill your orders needing only access to a computer. You don’t need to store your own inventory, multiple sizes of boxes, print labels, or go to the Post Office every day. You get the orders, Amazon ships them out. This goes on whether you are at home or on vacation. Once you get your inventory to an FBA fulfillment center, you can manage it from anywhere on the planet! A-HA! The second is the big one; how to LEVERAGE this new information into increased margins and a more efficient business model. Using Multi-Channel Fulfillment properly can truly revolutionize your business. You can lower your overhead in shipping costs, warehouse space, and labor while at the same time increasing your margins on every item that you sell. This is because of the extremely competitive costs associated with Multi-Channel Fulfillment. More on this after the fee breakdown. …….Read more. My readers get an extra-length free trial at FBA Power. [top] 3. Summer Toys are Hot on eBay and Amazon I have to be honest – I am not a huge toy seller, but I do love selling them when I can get them. Six years ago, eBay PowerSeller and toy expert, Jennie Hunt, got me hooked on toys with her holiday toy guide, followed later that year with her summer toy guide. I was always afraid to buy toys because they were so faddish. What if you bought the wrong toy just as a fad was ending? I had seen other sellers get stuck with merchandise and didn’t want to go there. Jennie solved that problem for me. Being the expert she is, Jennie did the research and reported on what toys were selling and which ones were so hot that people were overpaying for them. I think the first toy I bought on her recommendation was a Transformer toy. I actually found them on sale at Toys-R-Us and was able to mark them up 200% to sell on eBay. I was still shy so I only bought five of them. People were snapping them up at my Buy-it-now price as fast as I could list them. When I went back to Toys-R-Us to buy more, they were all gone. A couple of weeks ago I found some Cars2 Sticker activity sets for $9.95. I am selling them on eBay and Amazon now for $29.95 (sold 3 so far this week). Those are the kind of margins I like. As I said, I don’t sell toys that often, and when I do, I want them to be profitable. The Summer Toy Guide comes with the following info: The Summer Toy Guide includes:
I have been recommending the Summer Toy Guide to my readers for the past 4 years and have never received a single negative comment but have received lots of positive comments from folks who made money with it. And, Jennie offers a money back guarantee on the program if you are not happy. [top] Since I am introducing my new book about selling antiques and collectibles, it makes sense to cover how to ship fragile items. My favorite method is the Box-in-a-box method. Here are the steps:
That’s all there is to it. [top] 5. Niche of The Month – Vinyl Records & Turntables I bet you thought that Vinyl records were dead. Well, not only did they never really die, they are making a comeback. A recent news article in the UK showed that vinyl record sales grew over 55% during the past year. And in New York City, four new vinyl record stores have opened in just the past few months –joining ten other stores that were already there. And as I was sitting here writing this article, Kim Kommando came on the radio with a story about how vinyl records and tube type amplifiers are making a comeback. Why are they so popular? True audiophiles believe that analog is inherently better than digital. If you think about it, all music is analog. CDs and other digital recording devices reproduce the analog music by sampling, digitizing and recreating the music. I had not heard a vinyl record in over 5 years, but a new restaurant opened in out town last week and when I was eating there I notice they had a turntable and were playing records –and they sounded fantastic. Here are some completed auctions for LP record albums on eBay.  The other products that are hot are 33 RPM LP Turntables. Some of the new turntables on the market cost as much as $1000 or more. Look at these on Amazon:  And they are hot on eBay too:  So where do you find these records and turntables. You can hit garage sales and thrift shops and you will find the occasional record in good condition, but the single best way is to advertise. Simply place a classified ad in your local paper(s) that says:
And a second ad that says:
You will be amazed at how many replies you get. There are millions of people out there with boxes filled with vinyl records and record players and turntables gathering dust in basements. When you are out looking for turntables, keep your eyes out for reel-to-reel tape decks and other vintage stereo equipment, as all of those are good sellers too. Two things to remember: 1. Check the records for scratches and make sure the album cover is in good condition. When selling records – condition is everything. An old Beatles album in excellent condition can bring $50 or more while one in poor condition might not get more than a buck. 2. As for the turntables –the main thing is to make sure it works. A lot of them are belt driven so make sure the belts are in good condition. Take an album with you to try out. Make sure the needle tracks and doesn’t jump around. When you get home plug the turntable into an amplifier and play a record to make sure it’s running at correct speed and everything is working fine. Next give it a good cleaning with a damp cloth. If it has a wood base, you can use furniture polish or something like Pledge. I also use a can of dust spray to get the dust out of nooks and crannies. Update: After reading the article one of my readers with lots of experience selling vinyl sent this email with some more tips:
[top] 6. Buying Liquidation and Surplus Products Without Getting Burnt This is a guest article by Chad Maslak, who offers a great wholesale buying training program called Where and How to Buy Wholesale and Surplus Products at Pennies on the Dollar. In this economy the liquidation market is booming and liquidation and surplus suppliers are excellent places to find brand name goods at bargain wholesale prices. Chad has been doing this for years and is one of the leading experts on the web when it comes to buying liquidation and surplus products. Here is Chad’s article: +++++++++ There is a common misconception between wholesale products and surplus products. Many people do not understand there is a big difference between these types of products. Let me tell you why liquidation and surplus products can be profitable if you do it right --and how you can get burnt if you do it wrong. Surplus and liquidation items are merchandise that are sent to reclamation or distribution centers from various types of store chains. The products include shelf pulls, closeouts, customer returns, recalled products or discontinued products. They include various categories such as clothing, electronics, households, hard goods, soft goods and so forth. When retail stores need to get rid of product they sell them to surplus and liquidation dealers for pennies on the dollar and they in turn resell these products to the end consumer for pennies on the dollar. This is where you can find great merchandise and awesome deals to resell for profit. In most cases surplus items are new items, but occasionally they are used or damaged items. Stores need to clear them from their inventory to make room for other products as they only have a limited amount of shelf space. A lot of surplus and liquidation items are seasonal. Stores need to clear shelf space for the next season’s items. Surplus and liquidation items are different from wholesale or drop ship items because wholesale and drop shipped items are always new items obtained from a manufacturer or distributor source. Since these are new items, these will have a higher cost associated with them and will usually include warranty. Depending on your business model, surplus and liquidation products can be a lucrative source of product selling. Most people will see the profit potential in bulk goods or pallets, but wait! Danger, Will Robinson! Here are some things to watch for to avoid getting burnt! 1. Beware of Scammers - Always be careful when purchasing from sources you are not familiar with. There are many horror stories in the surplus and liquidation industry especially online and you don’t want to become another statistic. I always advise people to do their due diligence and check out who they are getting ready to do business with. There are many frauds and scams that operate behind a nice looking website… and that’s all it really is. A website with great pictures of products (generic pics or stock photos) offering great prices. Once you send your money in, you get either nothing at all or they send you a load of broken junk. These are scammers who simply place a website and offer products and a bogus office somewhere. Once they operate for a short time, get the money, they close down shop and then restart it somewhere else. Make sure the company you’re considering has contact info, people you can talk to, visit, an updated website, real pictures, etc. Check the Better Business Bureau for complaints and search on the web for a consistent list of people with complaints against the company. You can also check out the website URL on Who Is to get their real contact information. 2. Beware of Middlemen - There are many people who buy direct from the reclamation center and will sell the same pallets to you that you can get direct at a marked up cost. The problem with this is that often you will be paying inflated costs that eat into your profit margins and these often may cause you to barely break even when you sell the goods. 3. Know what you are buying - Not researching the types of products or category of products being invested in is one sure way to loose your investment. Often, people will buy a pallet load of merchandise without having a clue if it’s going to be profitable or not. They don’t know what the condition or status of the products are, meaning if it’s a return, refurbished good, defective etc. They don’t know if the goods are hardware goods, clothing or electronics and so forth. This means you have a chance of getting a lot of bum products that you can’t sell. Always email the seller if you have any questions and ask for a detailed breakdown of what you are buying and the source of the goods (shelf pulls, returns, seconds, etc.) 4. Not Understanding Your True Costs and Profit Margins -Most people buy bulk products without knowing their profit margin. In other words, how much is being invested verses how much the item will sell for. Most people don’t consider the piece count of the pallets, what is actually on the pallets and what the condition of those items is and how much it costs per piece to ship the pallet to them. These all factor into your profit margin. Often, sellers will buy without having a clue what products they are buying. They just buy because their surplus dealer told them the product is hot and they can get it in bulk and can sell it for a lot of money. It pays to do your due diligence. 5. Keep learning -The more you learn, the better off you are. Often, people think all you have to do is get a bunch of pallets and sell whatever it is without realizing there are a lot of things to know. Make sure to put in the proper learning of the industry, as it will help you reduce your chances of being scammed and increase your chances for profits. Pay attention to these 5 tips and you’ll be ahead of the game. Use this link if you want to learn more about Where and How to Buy Wholesale and Surplus Products at Pennies on the Dollar. [top] 7. New Wholesale Sources for eBay & Amazon Sellers Since we have an article about sourcing surplus and liquidation products, let’s start out with a few liquidation dealers. Topper Liquidators is one of our advertisers and a long-time source for eBay sellers. Their merchandise changes frequently so you want to check their website often to see the latest stuff. Topper specializes in selling in small lots, but if you want to buy a larger lot, you should email them as they can sometimes give you a better discount when you place a larger order. RG Riley sells off-price clothing, T-shirts and sweatshirts. They sell in small prepack cases; Closeout and irregular apparel only. Save 40% to 80%. VIA Trading is a wholesale auction site where you bid on pallet loads of goods. They have some great new stuff now and they always get a ton of great stuff in right after Christmas, so bookmark them and check every week. Jacobs Trading is a direct source for many retailers' and manufacturers' customer returns, over-stocks, shelf-pulls, and damaged goods. Genco sells deeply discounted wholesale closeouts, wholesale customer returns and overstock items, direct from America's largest retailers and manufacturers. Recently they have moved into selling smaller lots of items to become more accessible to small eBay and Amazon sellers. Countryside Closeouts is a business-to-business firm specializing in low-cost, high return retail products to dollar stores; eBay stores; convenience stores; thrift centers; discount stores; discount furniture stores; hardware stores and other businesses interested in selling quality products bought at aggressive, below wholesale prices. Here are some other general sources in different categories: Amplic manufacturers a large line of electric scented oil burners and electric nightlights. The Gerson Company sells a beautiful line of children's and decorative electric candles, LED lights and seasonal décor items for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Designed 4 Life carries the complete line of Himalayan Salt products including the salt back-therapy pillows, Himalayan bath salts, salt air fresheners, massage stones and Himalayan Gourmet salts for cooking and seasoning. One of their neat products is a Tequila Salt Lick. Boker USA
is the authorized distributor of Boker Knives made in That’s it for now. See you again in a couple of weeks. Skip McGrath P.S. If you missed the last issue, click here to read it. 
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