Selling on eBay - Time to Get Ready for the Holidays

Good evening fellow blog readers! Tonight's post is about getting ready for the holidays and listing items that will be popular as people look for gifts to buy. At this time of the year , right up until Christmas, people look to buy gift quality items that are new in the box and still sealed and are ready for gift giving. We have been listing furiously lately increasing our items that can be purchased from about 800 to over 1300! Much of this increase is because we have some items that have quantities to them. For example a few hundreds yo-yos or a dozen puzzles etc. We listed lots of great stuff to our store just this evening! Here you will see pictured some of our cool new items. A Peter Max Puzzle, A really cool Animal Art print kit and some fortune telling cards for kids.

People will soon start their holiday shopping and it is good to get ready way in advance. This year, many retails stores started holiday sales early to get buyers in since they are worried about heating oil costs affecting last minute shopping when the weather gets colder.

SELLING- Dont throw out your fathers old tools!

Good morning Blog readers! This mornings first post is about vintage tools. Almost everyone has some old tools kicking around. Usually they weigh a lot, are not too attractive and take up space! Often times when people inherit items they throw these old tools away, thinking they are just junk! As is usually the case, many times items you do not think are worth money are! Vintage tools sell very well on eBay. Most have a name or what is called a "Maker's mark" on the item to let you know who manufactured the tool. This way you can easily look them up on eBay to see if they have any value! I have posted a few pics for you to take a look at an old vise I have posted in our listings that has already attracted bidders! You can check out this item and many , many more in our eBay store at http://www.OnceUponABid.com .

SELLING - Welcome back to the world of Cabbage Patch Dolls!

Remember the days when Coleco? was flying Cabbage Patch dolls over on 747's to get them to stores on time? People were tripping over other people to get the doll for the children. Past crazes that have had time to age like fine wine are also good areas to look into for selling on eBay. Recently Cabbage Patch kids dolls are making a comeback. They come in all different variations, white, black, boy , girl, even animals! I even heard the once hot Furbies are on the top ten list this year!

So why do these things make good items to sell on ebay? It turns out people long for their memories quite a bit. In a difficult world, warm memories of things they loved as kids often become the collectibles of the next few decades. Few items have created as much interest as Cabbage Patch dolls. While we have sold some "average" used Cabbage Patch dolls in the past, we had the opportunity to pick up a collection of them from someone moving. Most of the dolls are in near perfect never used condition with all their "adoption papers" and boxes in great shape. Any items in such good shape are a sellers dream! I have posted pictures of a few of our 40 some odd Cabbage patch dolls you can find in our store. We will also be posting some very rare European issue Cabbage Patch dolls, which are popular as they have larger freckles than their American counterparts.

We have some twins, both white and African-American dolls and premies, and some Koussas (Cabbage patch cats).

I still think that someday those people with piles of beanie babies will experience the same revival. Of course that might take some time!

You can find our cabbage patch dolls in our store at www.onceuponabid.com . You can just type Cabbage patch in the store search when you get there!

SELLING - Keep thinking Retro - Aluminum cups??

Hey blog readers! Its been a busy eBay week! Our Pepsi radio featured in the post below sold for over $135.00! The auction started at $9.99 ! Tonights post continues on with the retro collectible theme.

As I gain more experience as a seller, I pick up new things to look for. These aluminum cups (probably from the 1950s) are an item I picked up just because they looked too good not to get! After a while you get a feel for things! I have since researched them and they appear to be made in the 50s or 60s and usually sell for a pretty good amount. These particular cups come with a cool plastic holder made by Federal Tool Works in Chicago, which sets them apart from others offered. I have not listed them but will soon. I just received two new books in the mail on Retro collectibles from the 50s and will post more on this topic soon!