A few months back I wrote a post on what I like to call eBaytrage. I just had a fun eBaytrage experience over the weekend that I thought I would share with you.
eBaytrage is buying something cheap or finding something for free and selling it online for a quick profit. You can find cheap stuff by trolling the free stuff pages or for sale pages on Craigslist, garage sales, or eBay. You can also follow discount sites like SlickDeals or the Amazon Gold Box. My favorite, due to its freeness, is Craigslist.
The idea is that you buy something that is undervalued and sell it at its real value. I found a free wood desk on Craigslist in my neighborhood, brought it home, cleaned it, listed it on Cragslist, and sold it for $40. The whole thing probably took an hour or so of my time. $40 for an hour’s work that I would have probably wasted watching TV is not bad if you ask me.
In the past I have turned around a camera for a $30 profit from SlickDeals and the desk. My total eBaytrage earnings are at $70 for very little work. I have two encyclopedias at home that I got for free that I am trying to sell for $100 or more each, but I am being patient as I have not had any good offers yet.
The trick is to keep re-listing items and make them look valuable. Put up pictures and use key words and caps to bring in clicks and offers. Just be careful that you don’t spend money on something and get stuck with it. Only buy something that another person would really want to pay for.
Have any of you ever played the online eBaytrage game and done well, or not? Please let us know in the comments.