Sometimes in the world of buying and selling to make money on eBay, we come across lots of “identical” or “similar items.” For example, you may be at an auction, and there’s a pallet of 20 die-cast model racing cars, or 50 of the exact same book or the exact same shoes.
Depending on the general saleability of the product, this can be an easy money-maker and time saver. Let me explain how this has worked for me – and thereby how it can work for you.
For example, last December at an auction, I bought a box of 20 “Vision Board” kits by John Assaraf. Assaraf and his Vision Board gained recognition when he was featured in the movie The Secret a few years ago – so this seemed like a good purchase.
I paid 60-cents a piece for them, and sold 19 of them for $8.95 and $9.95 over the next three months (We kept one for ourselves!). The beauty of this technique is that you only have to do your auction listing one time – and then either sell them via “Dutch Auction” or relist them whenever you want.
As of this writing, we sold all of these Vision Board kits. So, our initial outlay was approx $12, and we sold them for a total of about $170 – with minimal effort! You may not think this is a great return, but again, note the phrase “minimal effort!”
Important Note:
Of course, this only works well if there is a typical demand for more than one item. If you have 100 of something, and only 10 people want one – you have 90 left! So definitely do your market research BEFORE committing too much money on a pallet of ANYTHING!
Another example is some die-cast racecars – new in boxes – we bought from an individual. We bought 18 of them for a total of $80, and have been selling them from between $15 and $30 apiece. At this writing, we have 1 left – so we’ve seen a profit of almost $350. Again, minimal effort after we did the initial listing.
Last week, I was at an auction and came across a lot of antique pewter souvenir cups from the early 1900s. These cups depict a variety of famous scenes. For example, there are a couple of New York City, New Orleans, Salt Lake City, etc. I paid about $35 for the whole lot. One of the reasons I bought the lot was because it was so easy to template! 
As of this writing (4/15/11), I have not yet loaded them into eBay – they’ll go up for sale this Sunday evening. I will update this article as soon as the results are in from the initial run.
In the meantime, here is an example of a template for an auction such as this. Obviously, we would simply change the particulars – location, condition, etc – for each different cup as necessary.
Please note that this is a very simplified example of my template – I typically include information for International Shipping, Returns, etc – but in the interest of making this an easy-to-understand example, I’ve pretty much stripped it down – just to be able to show you the gist of it.
Great Antique Pewter Souvenir Cups!! See our other listings for more!
Please bookmark our auctions, and check back often, as you never know what you’ll find. Thanks for looking!
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DESCRIPTION: Nice antique pewter souvenir cup from Chicago, IL.
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CONDITION: Very Good with some dings and dents.
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DIMENSIONS: Approx 3 1/2″ tall.
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COMMENTS: Great souvenir cup! This would make a great gift or nice addition to your own collection.
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SHIPPING & HANDLING: $5.00 for Priority Mail shipping in the US. Includes Delivery Confirmation. WE COMBINE SHIPPING!
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PAYMENT: Payment is expected by PayPal within 3 days of the auction’s end, unless other arrangements have been made PRIOR to the auction ending. If you win more than one auction, please wait for an invoice so we can combine shipping costs if possible.
Thanks for looking and please see our other items here on eBay. We have lots of great stuff to offer and will be adding items as time permits.
Again, I’ll provide an update about how this particular antique pewter souvenir cup effort pans out!
Thanks for reading – I’ll have more tips on selling on eBay for you soon!
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