138: Five Tips To Start An eBay Business - Joe and Linda Yosso
Joe and Linda live in Vancouver, Washington. They each have an eBay store. Joe grew up in Brooklyn and Linda in Santa Rosa, California. Linda started selling about 15 years ago and Joe joined her 4 years ago. They enjoy working together.
Interesting Notes Linda started selling on eBay with things that her kids have outgrown and went from there. Her eBay store is Pollyannagrammy. It is coined after her favorite movie Pollyanna and of what she calls herself - Grammy. Her little granddaughter loves to call her "my", short for Grammy. Joe, her husband, has his own store, Joe's Gift and Gourmet. He initially thought of selling food items, but he never got to do it. Most of his items are jeans. Joe and Linda use their house as storage of their eBay stuff. They source their stuff from garage sales, thrift stores, and any place where they can pick up stuff. Joe used to hate sourcing. But when he realized that he could sell stuff for more money, he got hooked. The couple loves to buy stuff from thrift stores. Doing so made them feel that they are not only making a living, but also helping out charities. One of their favorites is the Second Hand Solutions that help homeless families. Another of their favorites helps Humane Society. They don't have a budget when they go to source because they never know what they can find. But they keep their purchases reasonable. Joe has the tendency to pick stuff in volume and give a low-ball offer. Once, there is a guy who sells the medical stuff of his son. The stuff turned out to be surgical shoes and 8 x 10 bandages. Joe knew nothing about it. He offered the guy $5 for the whole thing. Joe made $1500 out of the stuff. Linda is the one who organizes their stuff. She uses boxes, bins, and shelves. 95% of their sold items, Linda can find right. They have over a thousand mugs keep in boxes. Linda keeps 9-12 mugs per box. The box is labeled with a subject. Linda takes all the pictures and does the listing. Joe takes care of their shipment. He brings 15 to 20 packages to the post office once in a day. Linda uses an 18 x 18 lightbox to take pictures. She takes at least four angles of each item. With the use of a lightbox, her pictures are free of shadows. At other times, she would take pictures outside for a good lighting. Staying at home is Linda's favorite part of selling on eBay. To Joe, it is making money. One of the strange sales Linda had is selling her patterns. She is a seamstress and she has a thousand patterns. When she started selling on eBay, she started to sell her patterns at $2. She put them on auction and charged $2 for postage. One pattern was going up and up and wondered what was going on. One is sold for $50. Another is sold for $150 and charged $25 to send it to Australia. Joe and Linda hardly do auctions now. They do only if they find something that they have no idea what it is worth. In those cases, they will start the auction at a price that they think is okay with. One time, they had an item made of a pottery. They put it up for $15 and is sold for $107. It amazed them. There is stuff that made them nervous. They think that buyers might be disappointed. But this stuff turned out as the ones that buyers are excited about. The couple embraced the changes eBay made in the past. Like when eBay made all the listings mobile-friendly. It took Joe and Linda awhile to get their listings fixed. It was hard, but they understand the changes to their benefit. Linda pays $300 a month for her eBay store. With that, she got 10,000 listings, free packaging supplies and a quarterly credit of $50. Once you list the items, it's there. So it is going to cost you 10 cents a month. When Joe's former business gone folded, eBay saved them. So, Joe and Linda want to go with the flow. They are doing well with their little stuff. If they could get small items, it would be better for them. They started doing okay with the jeans too. They've got better places where they could buy jeans for a low price. Right now, the couple is renting. They plan to get their own place again and have two or three shed houses. Advice, Tips, and Tricks You can start an eBay business in 20 minutes. It is a matter of finding something that you could sell and make a profit on. Five Tips To Start An eBay Business 1. Live with the idea that a lot of people make money so you can make money too. 2. Thrive to live with the proof that somebody else has done it so you can do it too. 3. Go out and find something that you like and that you can make money on. 4. If you are broke, start around selling things in your house. Ask your relatives and friends if they have stuff that they don't want. 5. Stay away from auctions. If you are going to do auctions, don't start at a dollar like some people say you should do. Start at a price where you will be happy with if the item is sold. Quotes "We love thrift stores. We are not just buying stuff to help us make a living, but we're helping out charities." "The one...