Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Put your creativity to work... on eBay!

We all want that ideal home-based source of supplementary income. EBay, the biggest marketplace for home-based business, is the ticket to finally opening that door.


You need but one of two things in order to profit: a niche and/or creativity.

The beautiful thing about the online market is that you are not limited to tangible goods. This is where your creative sensibilities can really pay off. Just look at the string of off-beat and gimmicky auctions that have been quite successful:

- Last year an average looking lady from CA (not someone famous or anything) listed a month worth of advertising on the space above her large breasts. That sold for $2,200! And I don’t think she was actually walking around bearing it all for a month.

- A Scottish woman did the same thing and made 422 GPB, or about $840 for a 15 day ad.

- Supposedly “haunted” dolls and items. As long as the back-story is interesting and scary enough, these items commonly go for $50-$100+ when they would regularly be $5. All you need is some old, scary looking toys and a talent for creative writing (which, as a blogger, you have!)

- New trends. Someone had come up with the genius idea to use the community aspect of eBay to make a profit. The idea: A game of “pass-it-around Twister”. The first person spins and writes in the spaces where they would have to place their hands/feet. Then it’s sold, the next person does the same and so on. Some of these “passes” actually did as much as $130 + shipping! There are numerous such examples out there, and it can pay of to get on the bandwagon when the price is low enough.

- Use your own website! You can actually sell advertising space on your own blog. Weekly, monthly, whatever – it’s up to you. Especially if you get a decent amount of traffic, that can be a selling point. Once sold you can simply add their ad by pasting it in or with code, depending on the format of your site.

- Provide a service. I haven’t seen to many people listing custom writing services, but it could definitely work. You can list services such as homework help, essay/paper assistance, custom written poems and stories, editing services. The plethora is limited only by your imagination.


Get your own ideas – just browse through the Everything else – strange / bizarre items categories and you’ll see what I mean!

As for the niche approach… that’s a bit more tricky. There are plenty of opportunities to make bulk/wholesale purchases and profit from reselling. The thing is, you need to know what you’re doing.

Developing a niche requires much more time and commitment, as well as investing in a reference library for whatever the niche is. For example, I primarily deal with coins. The resources and accessories cost nearly $1,500, but it was worth every penny. Each time I find something valuable that might’ve otherwise been discarded, I’m thankful for making the investment.

It beats the heck out of working for someone else and can easily hold you over while searching for that ever so elusive full-time creative job.

5 comments:

dejanae said...

ha
id sell some ad space on my back or something

but for real
i'm too lazy to take up said venture

good luck with your coin collecting
or selling or whatever it is you do :p

Pan/Thanatos said...

Haha, it could work! Even if just for shits n giggles.
Thanks, I try =)

Atlanta Cougar said...

I love Ebay. I am a Power seller with 992 positive feedbacks and a 99.7% positive feedback rate. The 3 people who have dissed me are nutcases....but that is a story for another post. I have sold paintings, concert tickets, sporting event tickets, 200 pairs of True Religion Jeans, Raggedy Ann dolls, snow globes, photos, my clothing, golfclubs, CDs, books on tape, vinyl albums, old books...you name it.

Interesting....concert ticket sales are way down.... I usually gamble on a hot concert and buy multiple tickets when they go on sale. I think it is the economy.
What kind of coins do you sell?

Pan/Thanatos said...

Cougar - You have me just beat in feedback, my main account is 933. I have 3 accounts total... one I use to buy coins and sell watches and other stuff, another I use to buy watches and sell bulk coins and a third (with the best feedback) I use to sell the better stuff.
I mostly deal with vintage/antique foreign coins, but have also sold gemstones, mineral specimens, watches, jewelry, antique books, decoratives, art, silver, etc. Basically whatever I know makes a buck =)
The concert ticket thing is an excellent idea, I should have added that to this post.
People go nuts and don't mind spending 5x what it normally costs to get it last minute.
Great niche.

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