I got a little off-track with our summer vacation. I will try to catch up now. Auction #3 completed back in April and the current balance is now $88.58. On to Auction #4! I have something (or rather, several somethings) in mind if I can locate them in the stores. I am headed out to retail stores today to try to spend at least $80! I’ll keep you posted if I find what I am looking for.


On Friday I finally found Auction #3. I stopped by a garage sale and bought a box of Thomas the Tank Engine Train toys. They originally wanted $50 for the box, but I asked them if they would take less and I was able to purchase them for $38. I went through the box this weekend and researched what each item was worth. There are several retired trains in the box that are more collectible than the others so I am going to list each of them separately on eBay. There were also two James cars that had been recalled, so I went through the recall process and in 12-16 weeks, I will list those as well.  This cuts my balance down to .60 cents, but eBay is running a 1 cent listing special through March 31st which will allow me to list several auctions individually which will bring a greater profit, instead of one large auction.

Thomas the Tank Engine Trains and extras
Retired Dodge Train
Retired Splatter Train
Retired Sodor Railway Repair
Cranky Crane

Previous Balance: $38.60
Thomas Trains: -$38.00
Ebay Listing Fees: -.55 cents
Current Balance: .05 cents with five auctions running


Wa-hoo! The buyer finally paid for Auction No. 2 on Saturday. I shipped it out yesterday and the new balance is now $38.60. Now all I have to do is find Auction No. 3!


So I’ve written the winning bidder and he hasn’t responded. He has 50+ positive feedback so I assume he is honest, but I am a little concerned. I’ll check my P.O. Box tomorrow to see if he has sent payment, even though in my second email I asked him to just let me know if he is sending his payment, as opposed to paypal. Still no response.


Auction #2 has ended at $41.00! I have to wait for the buyer to pay and to figure out shipping to get our exact balance total, so ….. in the mean time I’ll start looking for Auction #3. Tomorrow I’ll check out a consignment shop to see what I can find. Rough estimate for the balance total: $33.00. Not bad in just two weeks!


Oops!

05Mar08

I miscalculated the shipping on my first auction. I predicted it would cost $4.50 for shipping. But when I took it to the post office yesterday, it ended up costing $6.00. I must have miscalculated the weight. That lowers the account balance from $2.63 to $1.13, which is a huge miscalculation at this point. The good news is that Auction #2 is doing better than I predicted. It is currently at $36.00 (view the link in the previous post). So that should make up for the miscalculation last week. However, in looking at the shipping charges for this week’s auction, I probably miscalculated them also. Since the auction already has bidders ebay won’t let me correct the shipping charges. We’ll see what happens.


Auction #2

03Mar08

Today I put The Farming Game up and it looks like it was a really good choice! I searched and on average they are selling for about $20 for slightly used ones. This one is brand new in the box and in NEW condition. The graphics are not faded and the box isn’t worn. Hopefully this will increase the budget this week. Although, I am a little saddened. The more I read about the game, the more I want to keep it for myself. It looks pretty-cool!

-1.00 cost of The Farming Game
-.15 ebay listing fee
Account Balance: $2.63 cents

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESEX:IT&item=160214765932&_trksid=p3984.cSELL.m315.lVI 


The first auction ended this morning. The shoes sold for $5.50. I’ll ship them out tomorrow in a box I got in the mail myself last week. After eBay and Paypal fees, it left the balance at $3.78.

Now for the next auction! I stopped in at an Estate Sale I passed today and found a game called The Farming Game from 1979 still in it’s original sealed packaging. Everything was 50% off on Sunday, so it cost $1.00. I was hoping to find something in the $3.00 range, but this was the best deal I could find. Tomorrow I’ll put the game up to see what happens.

-.50 cents orginal cost of shoes
-.15 cents eBay listing fee
5.50 shoe sale price
-.48 eBay final fee
-.59 paypal fee
Account Balance: $3.78 cents 
-1.00 cost of The Farming Game


With just .50 cents in my pocket I hit a garage sale in our neighborhood to find my first auction item for eBay. After some debate, I settled on a nice pair of toddler tennis shoes. They were name brand, in very good shape and just the right price. They even came with the original box.

  • I opened a new account on eBay. Seller name: PiggyBankBlog.
  • I opened a paypal account to make it easy for sellers to pay online.
  • Took some great pictures of the shoes and….
  • Started a 7 day auction on Sunday morning with an opening price of .99 cents.

We are off and running!
-.50 cents Cost of shoes
-.15 cents eBay fees
Account Balance: -.65 cents

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160211948365