Is it possible to locally source a $0.50 to $3.00 item to sell 3-5x profit consistently on ebay?

[qualitycustomercare]

So I discovered this legal shipping loophole (quite amazing, and not sure how long it will last, actually), that would really benefit me if I could ideally source a small-ish item locally that upsells for 3-5x the purchase price. 

The reason I need the item(s) to sell consistently is so that I can go up the search ranks with that item.

Just wondering if anyone is actually doing it. I'm really bad at sourcing so I'm just trying to figure out what items I should be looking at.

[sin-n-dex]

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@qualitycustomercare wrote:

So I discovered this legal shipping loophole (quite amazing, and not sure how long it will last, actually), that would really benefit me if I could ideally source a small-ish item locally that upsells for 3-5x the purchase price. 

The reason I need the item(s) to sell consistently is so that I can go up the search ranks with that item.

Just wondering if anyone is actually doing it. I'm really bad at sourcing so I'm just trying to figure out what items I should be looking at.

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That's a dynamic and not consistent. Most people who are smallish sellers will check garage sales and the like for vintage items (some with phone in hand to check to see what it sells for before striking a deal).

My shop inherits tons of collections of toys, comics, and vintage items in varying quality. Sometimes we get $2 to sell it, sometimes $20. The trick is to acquire it for nothing as part of a bigger deal for more liquid capital.

Cheers, C.

[goodluckselling]

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@qualitycustomercare wrote:

So I discovered this legal shipping loophole (quite amazing, and not sure how long it will last, actually), that would really benefit me if I could ideally source a small-ish item locally that upsells for 3-5x the purchase price. 

The reason I need the item(s) to sell consistently is so that I can go up the search ranks with that item.

Just wondering if anyone is actually doing it. I'm really bad at sourcing so I'm just trying to figure out what items I should be looking at.

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Trying to operate within a loophole is never a long term successful strategy.  Never!

Good Luck Selling!

[luckythewinner]

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@qualitycustomercare wrote:

Is it possible to locally source a $0.50 to $3.00 item to sell 3-5x profit consistently on ebay?

The reason I need the item(s) to sell consistently is so that I can go up the search ranks with that item

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A million sellers are waiting in that line ahead of you 🙂

Photographing, listing, packing, and shipping is the easy part that a trained chimpanzee could do. 

IMHO a seller should be focusing 95% of his energy on sourcing inventory, because that is the key to eBay.

And no one on the Bay messageboard is going to give up their secret. 

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@qualitycustomercare wrote:

So I discovered this legal shipping loophole (quite amazing, and not sure how long it will last, actually), that would really benefit me if I could ideally source a small-ish item locally that upsells for 3-5x the purchase price. 

The reason I need the item(s) to sell consistently is so that I can go up the search ranks with that item.

Just wondering if anyone is actually doing it. I'm really bad at sourcing so I'm just trying to figure out what items I should be looking at.

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Yes as far as the sourcing goes. I make 10-100x profit or more. It's even possible to get things at no cost.

Legal shipping loophole? Uh-huh...

[sam9876]

What is your shipping loophole?

[coolections]

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@sam9876 wrote:

What is your shipping loophole?

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Just a guess. Send media when it's not suppose to be media ?

OP if everyone could find a $3 item and consistently sell it for $15 do you really think they will tell you what it is ? Even if they did, the market would become saturated within a month and you would be back to having only a one in a thousand chance to sell it. You would then blame Ebay that it is their fault you are not selling anything.

[femmefan1946]

Not the ship for a penny scam, I hope?

That was one where you paid a smallish fee , usually less than $50, and you got in the mail, in an envelope franked with a one cent stamp, a document purporting to license you to send Letter Mail for just one penny.

The proof? The documents came in an envelope with only a penny in postage.

Of course, since even penny stamps werere "tagged" and most lettermail is not really looked at by human eyes but by infrared machinery, most of those envelopes went through.

If one didn't arrive another would be sent out-- because it only cost the scammer a penny to mail another.

The USPS stopped tagging low value postage after that.

[femmefan1946]

I found a modern 5cent stamp which I can sell pretty consistently for $9.99 as a plate block and which I pick up constantly in philatelic estates.

It's not useful to you, since I doubt you ever see Canadian stamp collections.

I also have two or three cult SF/F writers whose works  I find pretty consistently in thrift stores for 75cents to $1.00 Cdn and again can sell for $9.99 including shipping.The GGA covers help.

Then there are Bescherelle. The 12000 sells better than the 8000. Usually $1.00Cdn -- sell for $15USD+ shipping.

Find a niche.

Know what you sell, sell what you know.

@sin-n-dex

Yeah-- one of the best ways to get cheap saleable merch is to have a store that people will bring estates and collections to.

I had to cut back my ephemera listings when we closed our shop and retired.

Still get people bringing us estates though.

[vsgt-57]

If you do in fact hit upon the goose that lays the golden egg, which is not entirely impossible...

The following has been the past outcomes of such events for me:

1. It doesn't work out anything like I had imagined, in other words no sales or hardly much at all.

2. Someone else has in fact already thought of it, not sure how I didn't see it but somewhere right around the corner and just out of my sight there are already tons of the same thing for sale and I'm just the next guy in line.

3. I failed to realize more than a few of the costs, long story short there's money in it but nowhere near spectacular.

4. The supply was shorter than I thought... 

5. It does good, in fact I do quite well with it but...

It isn't long before others join in, never fails, only a matter of time.

There's more I'm sure but the best I've had in all the years of selling, I still only sold maybe 3-4 sometimes 5x on a good day and the profit was nice but it wasn't enough to take regular vacations to the Bahamas if you get my drift... Not even close, the best day in a month we might be talking a decent $50 bucks, most often it was more like $10 or $20 and this went on for some time but eventually #5 happened.

By the way, that was one item out of hundreds...

It mostly happens either purely by accident or only after considerable time, effort and research.

So in conclusion I would say one can expect mixed results, you never know but to do well consistently it really pays to source a collection of things and not count on just one...

Another way to say it is, win some lose some.

I can tell you this, I have learned whenever I think I've struck gold:

Take it slow, start out with 1-2, don't go all out and buy every last one in sight.

And if those 1-2 sell really well then maybe secure 3-4 more and maybe 5-10 but not 30-500...

Just in case, I mean.

Yes, I've gotten stuck with 100's in unsellable inventory before as well.

All because I thought I'd struck gold.

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@coolections wrote:

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@sam9876 wrote:

What is your shipping loophole?

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Just a guess. Send media when it's not suppose to be media ?

OP if everyone could find a $3 item and consistently sell it for $15 do you really think they will tell you what it is ? Even if they did, the market would become saturated within a month and you would be back to having only a one in a thousand chance to sell it. You would then blame Ebay that it is their fault you are not selling anything.

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 Yeah they're hiding the listing 

[mam98031]

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@qualitycustomercare wrote:

So I discovered this legal shipping loophole (quite amazing, and not sure how long it will last, actually), that would really benefit me if I could ideally source a small-ish item locally that upsells for 3-5x the purchase price. 

The reason I need the item(s) to sell consistently is so that I can go up the search ranks with that item.

Just wondering if anyone is actually doing it. I'm really bad at sourcing so I'm just trying to figure out what items I should be looking at.

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What exactly are you talking about when you state "So I discovered this legal shipping loophole ..."?  What does this mean?

[robot-hands]

3x .50 is not something that could be worth your time unless you time is worthless, you found it en masse constantly, consistently, no one else caught on and is in high demand.

Besides if that MacGuffin really existed absolutely no one would tell you.

[kcdcpa]

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@qualitycustomercare wrote:

So I discovered this legal shipping loophole (quite amazing, and not sure how long it will last, actually), that would really benefit me if I could ideally source a small-ish item locally that upsells for 3-5x the purchase price. 

The reason I need the item(s) to sell consistently is so that I can go up the search ranks with that item.

Just wondering if anyone is actually doing it. I'm really bad at sourcing so I'm just trying to figure out what items I should be looking at.

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What exactly is "legal shipping loophole (quite amazing, and not sure how long it will last, actually)" ........ we would ALL like to know what it is.

There might just be a Secret Probation, or even a Double Secret Probation Anti-Loophole section that you might not have read, or might not have understood.

[penguins_dont_fly]

Let's see:

Without a micropayments account, if I buy something for $0.50 and charge 3x

Selling Price: $1.50

COGS: 0.50

FVF: $0.15

PP: $0.34

$1.01

Packing material cost?

Postage Cost?

Time and effort?

Your legal loophole is probably not very legal ... and it likely to come back at you hard 😞

And I agree that if you aren't good at sourcing ... then you may be in the wrong business. There is no magic bullet, no "get rich quick" that is sustainable in this market. You may get the jump on the trend ... but it won't last long. Just ask all of the sellers that got stuck with truckloads of fidget spinners, hoverboards and hatchimals that they paid close to retail for while the market was "hot" 😞

[qualitycustomercare]

To reply to all your questions and concerns,

I already know someone taking advantage of this shipping trick and has built his ebay business to bank near 6 figures yearly.

He was nice enough to explain it to me (requires multiple steps) but of course he's not going to give away his sourcing info. He has a handful of prodcuts that consistently get returns of 3x or more, and he pays half the shipping than anyone else. 

I can't tell you exactly what it is. The hole would close certainly. But just think about it for a while: how could those Chinese companies sellthings for 25 cents, shipping all the way from China and still make a profit?