You are making perfect sense to me....but I'm having the same thoughts as you, so that may not mean much.

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Parker, Wyndser, and Carson....................Wyndser (in blue) with her cousin

Great minds think alike huh? I hope so of the seasoned Ebay sellers will help us out on this one!!! PLEASE!!!

I have never sold anything that I bought specifically to sell. I only sell stuff that I want to get rid of anyway, therefore there is no initial cost.

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~Happiness is a large family~

I sell a bit on ebay. I buy quality, name brand clothing for my own children on clearance at the end of season (usually Gymboree, Gap, TCP, etc). They wear it for a year, and anything that is still in good shape goes to ebay. I often make back what I paid for it, and then I use that money to buy new things. Sometimes I'll pick up things at garage sales or on clearance that I think might do well, but mostly I just sell their used clothing.

I totally :love: ebay.

I have sold a bunch of stuff on ebay and the fees really aren't so bad. You pay roughly 10-12% of your selling price tops to ebay and Paypal fees. If you don't want to pay for Paypal, you can accept money orders only. I have learned the hard way (4 like new pairs of Levi 501's sold for $9 - ouch!) that you ALWAYS set your price at what you want to get out of it and then if it doesn't sell, so what? You're out a whole 20-cents. I've made about $500 profit off ebay so far, and it's not that hard. It took more time to list things than I expected though.

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I am my son's mom & my husband's wife.

Fees aren't that bad, unless you're selling a lot of stuff for less than $5 or so. Ebay has a listing fee, which varies depending on the starting price, and the final value fee is 5-6%, depending on the final bid. It's probably better than consignment, as long as it sells. Now, if you do extra features like multiple photos, subtitles, and that, then the fees do add up. If you have webspace available, you can host the phots there and not have to pay Ebay for the extra pictures.

Paypal's fee is 30 cents plus 2.9%. Again, it only really hurts if you sell a lot of low-price auctions. But, the convenience of Paypal tends to increase the number of potential bidders, so I think it's advantage in the long haul.

Shipping shouldn't cost you much as the seller, since the buyer usually pays the shipping costs. I usually add a small handling fee, less than $1, to help cover costs. Just don't do what I did, and mis-weigh the box. You can get a fairly accurate scale at Target/Walmart/etc. (I got a kitchen scale for around $10), and the USPS website has a very good postage calculator that will give you all the available options - Priority, First Class, etc. You can even print labels online at USPS.com and get free or reduced-price Delivery Confirmation.

I send most things Priority, since the Post Office provides free boxes for Priority Mail, and will even deliver them to you in batches of 10 or 25. However, small things can often go First Class for a lower price, which will help with the bidding. Heavy things, especially books and magazines, can be sent Media or Bound Printed for a much lower price as well. I tend to quote one rate in the auction, but give the buyer the option to upgrade to a faster method if they want to pay extra. I buy enough stuff, and save the bubble wrap, etc, that I usually don't have to buy packing materials. There are also ways to get peanuts and bubblewrap cheap or free.

I buy lots of items off of the internet. I save those packing materials to use when I ship items I sell out. (examples are packing peanuts, tissue paper, boxes pretty much anything in good condition!) It helps save some money!

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Ok. I have to ask. For those of you that are making $100-$200/week, how much stuff are you selling? I have listed a few things before and haven't done good at all.