Adding It Up – May
Where is the year going? We’re already into June, so it’s time for me to sum up my additional earnings for the past month.
The total for May was £29.96, which was from four items sold on eBay, and one on Amazon. I sold a couple of Nintendo N64 games, a pair of Paul Smith Jeans, and a Ted Baker handbag on eBay, as well as a book about e-Commerce I had listed on Amazon Marketplace. The biggest profit came from the Paul Smith jeans, which is unsurprising given their designer cachet, even if they were used. This would seem like a good revenue stream to pursue, but the danger of unknowingly passing on fakes is a bit worrying, so I’ll probably proceed with caution on that front.
I went to a few car boot sales over the last couple weeks, but bought absolutely nothing at any of them, simply because nothing caught my eye. Unsurprisingly, they were mostly filled with heaps of children’s clothes, boxes of VHS tapes, and the general junk found at the back of people’s garages and sheds. I know that this is also where the best gems can be found, but seeing as I was looking modern or retro video games, these weren’t of any interest to me. Any video games I did see were all in that mid-range of not being new enough to attract a decent resale price, but not old enough to qualify for being retro or vintage. Think PC games and PS2 games – neither old or new enough.
I have a few more things to list at home simply to get out of the way, but like always, it’s a matter of doing the research to find the pricing point, and then photographing and listing them. This doesn’t take up too much time, it’s just a matter of finding the motivation to do so. One thing I’ve found quite useful over the last couple of months is the eBay smartphone app. My approach has been to take photos of the items on my phone (mostly those which don’t need multiple angles and close-ups etc) and then compose the listing at a later date. Depending on how detailed I want the eBay listing to be, I often just list it via the phone when I have time. If it’s an item that is better listed via the laptop or a PC, I can write it up and then simply add the photos I stored up on my phone and listed them there and then.
In theory, I could buy an item at a car boot sale and photograph and list it for sale mere minutes after my purchase. I’ve also noticed that the prevalence of smartphones and tablets has led to a rise in eBay listings launched from these devices, all of which stands to reason, but it’s also led to an overwhelming amount of very poor listings. This can be both good and bad for the buyer. Poor quality ‘eBay Mobile’ listings is one of my bug-bears at the moment, but maybe I’ll post/rant about that another time.
I’m off on holiday in the middle of June, so I might not do much listing this month. I’ll at least have to be careful not to have any listings that end during my trip. I’ll still be keeping my eyes open for re-sale opportunities when I’m away, though.
I’ve already made a couple of sales in June, so even if I don’t get around to making any listings I’ve at least made a few pounds.
