Selling on eBay from a College Town: A Complete Guide for College Students

As a college student, you’ll figure out that there are many methods to acquire valuable items. Whether you come across a Super Nintendo system (or even SNES controllers), a pile of used college textbooks, or a vintage camera, believe it or not, there is someone who may pay you more than you paid for it. In any college town, you will find some hidden gems in thrift stores such as Goodwill or Salvation Army, or by going to garage sales and yard sales on the weekends. Furthermore, you may have some old stuff lying around your dorm or apartment (or some of your textbooks from last semester) that you could flip on eBay or Half.com for a profit. This blog post will be dedicated to providing some great tips for beginning eBayers and provide some insight into what types of items your college town may have for you to take advantage of and flip on eBay.

When browsing for items at garage sales or thrift stores, it’s important to be able to have a sense for what an item could be worth. One of the most important factors in flipping items on eBay is your knowledge or resources on what an item is worth so that you can make a good offer and create a nice profit margin for yourself. Throughout the past several years, I have been focusing more on eBay and have made a average of $6,000 a year.

Personally, I’ve found my niche areas in video games, cameras, shoes, and miscellaneous collectibles. Since I’ve been selling on eBay since 1999, I’ve sold all sorts of items for a hefty profit. In 2012, it is a little easier to gauge the value of an item because of the eBay iPhone app when you're in your local thrift store or checking out garage sales over the weekend. To make sure that my iPhone stays protected while I'm on the go, I use the Lifeproof iPhone Case. It's an awesome case and I highly recommend it for any iPhone user. 

Determining Value and “Saleability” 
The eBay app gives me a look into what the item could bring. First, you’ll want to see what the completed items went for. Do your research and learn about random items that you come across. You may be surprised about what could sell on eBay for some big money. Hundreds of dollars profit are to be had and it only takes a second to look it up!

• Do a search for completed items that actually sold... and sort by lowest bid price. If the lowest bid price is at least 50% higher than what I can acquire the item for, I buy it.
• Next, I see how many of the item are on eBay. If there are a ton of items on there currently (and a large number that didn’t sell) without bids, you’ll want to stay away from it. 
• Next, you’ll want look at the condition of the item. Condition is everything. This is where your profit margin will be; the better the condition, the higher the price – especially if you take a ton of great, high quality photos of your item that you plan to sell. 

Acquiring Items

If you’re at a yard sale, always offer a lower price. Have a bundle of ones in your pocket for easy negotiating power. You can often haggle down from $20 to $15, $15 to $12, or even combining items and offering a package deal. For example, if I see a nice router at a garage sale for $10 and see a nice collectible priced at $3, I’ll ask them if they’ll take $10 for both. Usually, the answer is yes. The worse they say is no, then you fire back with “how about $11?” This is where your $1 bills come in handy :) 

Selling Items 
First of all, make sure that you’re honest and describe your item completely and accurately. Your eBay feedback score – one of the most important factors in buyers deciding to buy from you or not – is precious to you. One negative could knock you off of the search listing page if you’re not a preferred eBay Top Seller. 

• Since you’ve done your research, you’ll know what the item has sold for based on condition, photos, and description. 
• Start by listing your item for a reasonable price. If you’re confident it will sell, start at 0.01. Why? People will bid and then when/if they get overbid, they’ll be directed back to your item and bid again! 
• You can place a Buy it Now price on anything that you’re selling. I usually put a BIN price on an item that is a bit higher than what others have been selling for. Most of the time, my items sell through the BIN. 
• Describing your item accurately, posting high quality photos, and providing a ton of information (even if you think it is too much) is an important factor in attracting bidders. You will want to take photos of the actual item you’re selling. Believe it or not, buyers are more likely to bid on an item that has a real life photo, not a stock photo. High quality photos attract bidders! 
• As a seller, you can charge your buyer for shipping. You’ll want to be honest and accurate with your shipping costs. I have received many positive feedback on eBay that refer to my honest shipping charges, so you’ll want to ensure that you shipping costs are accurate. 

Packing and Shipping 
This may be what holds most people back from selling on eBay. Shipping items safely and securely is an important piece to selling on eBay. Here are some important tips:

• Make sure to be fast with your shipping. You can purchase USPS or UPS shipping labels right from Paypal so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t ship the same day. It's important that you keep a good supply of printer ink as that can be one of the limiting factors when it comes to shipping from home.
• USPS flat rate shipping envelopes are a life saver. They are free at your local post office (or you can order them online and have them delivered to your door for free). It costs $4.90 and you’d be surprised how much you can fit in there safely. Best of all, as it is flat rate, you can put up to 70lbs of items in a flat rate box and it will always cost the same. 
• Always include a tracking number or confirmation number to your buyer and be sure to “mark as shipped”.
• Packing the item is important. You can purchase a roll of brown roll paper at WalMart for $3 and use this to pack your boxes. Boxes can be picked up almost anywhere: check Craigslist or ask friends.You can also use old newspaper or re-use any shipping envelopes. I keep a stash of envelopes or anything that I can ship in so that I can re-use it. This will help you cut down on overhead. 
• If you’re shipping something in an envelope, make sure you wrap it in something before you put it in the envelope even if it is only a plastic bag from Walmart or Target. This can help the item to be more protected. 
• Offering shipping insurance as a safety net for both buyer and seller can be helpful, but I find that it’s not used as much as it used to be. Just make sure you’re sending something with a confirmation number and pack it safely and you should be good to go. 

Fees from eBay and Paypal 
eBay and Paypal both charge you to use their services. Fees can take a toll on you, especially if you accept Paypal. My general rule of thumb is that you’ll end up losing 3%-7% due to fees (eBay + Paypal). You should in fact accept Paypal. It is a preferred method of payment now by most sellers and preferred by buyers due to the Paypal buyer protection. Note that in 2011, US sellers who made more than $10,000 per year were issued a 1099-K from Paypal, so you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping track of your own eBay business if you begin to make good money flipping. 


Examples of what you can find and flip in a College Town 
While the list below could have its own blog dedicated to it, I wanted to provide you with a list of what some examples are of items that could sell well from a college town. Here are some examples of items that you will always run across in a college town and can make good money flipping on eBay or Half.com.

• Textbooks. Look up or scan the ISBN number to see what it’s going for. This is very helpful at yard sales. 
• "Vintage" clothing. Browse thrift stores for clothing that looks trendy and cheap. Take good photos.
• Video game systems. You’d be surprised what an old box of Super Nintendo, Nintendo NES, or Sega games could fetch on eBay. Look for games in original boxes complete with instructions. These are a gold mine. If you sell enough, you can even keep some for yourself!
• Shoes. Condition is key with shoes. Name brand dress shoes, NIKE running shoes, and Air Jordans in almost any condition can fetch $20-$100+ easily.
• Computer parts. You have to make sure it’s in working order, but this is a great money maker.
• Cameras, lenses, and parts. Once you get a hang of learning a Canon from a Nikon accessory, you’re golden.
• Modems/routers. You’d be surprised how many perfect (and recent) modem/router combos get sent to Goodwill at the end of a semester from people moving out. 
• Xbox 360 controllers. This has been a huge money maker for me. I’ve picked up a ton of these (both wired and wireless) for $5 each and flipped wireless Xbox 360 controllers for $25 all day.

Offer to Sell Items for Friends!

Once you've gained some experience and earned a good eBay feedback rating, offer to sell items for your friends on eBay. Many of them will have old video game systems from home that they didn't realize could bring a ton of cash on eBay. You can also offer to sell their textbooks for a small percentage. 

Do you have any examples of items that could sell? Do you have experience selling items on eBay? Let me know in the comments! If you’ve read down this far, thank you for reading!