Do you remember the first item you ever sold online? Let us know by sending an email to ina@auctionbytes.com and we may publish your story. Today we hear from two readers, Sari and Karen, who share the excitement of becoming purveyors of hard-to-find items.
I had acquired several Gorham Sterling Silver Christmas ornaments from a silver dealer. There was one design made a year for 10 yrs, I had no knowledge of their value, but I knew that I could get at least 25.00 and I had paid 14.00 so not being greedy, I was satisfied with what ever my profit would be. WELL, as I watched the auction, it went up to 500.00, at the time I was using a webtv and was sure there was an error. Nope, two persons were outbidding each other.
Well, it was sold at 500.00 and after the auction was over, the bidder that lost emailed me and said he was so sad to lose that item, I said no problem, I can get you the same thing, so I again bought the item for 14.00, sold it to the second person, and in just a flick of the wrist, I had made 1,000.00. ONE THOUSAND dollars on that auction. That was in the beginning yrs of ebay. I have other goodies happen, but none of them reached that amount. Oh for the good old days on ebay.
Sari Raby
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The first item I ever sold was a collection of old rick rack and bias tape, still in original packages, that had belonged to me other. I was so excited, you would have thought I had won the lottery. After that I was hooked and have been auctioning sewing, quilting and craft supplies ever since. Love it!
I have met so many great people, mostly ladies who are so far from good stores that they have turned to the internet for their purchases. I love to shop for bargains and pass the discounts along to my customers.
Karen
About the author:
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and AuctionBytes.com and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). Follow her on Twitter at @auctionbytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com.
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