Finding items to sell on Ebay based on Keyword sets & Utility of the item.
First as to keywords.. KEYWORDS -APPEALING TO MORE THAN ONE SEARCHER If you could find items appealing to two sets of keyword searches they were good. If you found items that appealed to three you had an almost sure winner.
Example. Glow in the dark Dragon jigsaw puzzles (sold out). This appealed to people that search for glow in the dark decor (which I never knew people did til I sold here), to people that love Dragon stuff (which there is a huge dragon fan base on Ebay) and of course to jigsaw puzzle people. I bought every one a few stores had (hundreds) and sold every one here profitably.
Also as many of you know some very popular keywords help sales by bringing in people due to their popularity. We sold Sesame street items, disney items, cabbage patch items, strawberry shortcake (did you see the mug that someone just sold for $200?), etc etc. People that find one of those usually might be interested in others. Words like FAIRY , MAGIC, etc are huge as well.
Then there are odd cases where a new item matches a collectible item from the past in a keyword. One such item is FAIRYKINS . The original was nothing short of amazing (by Marx I believe). Years ago they lived in this book like house. Highly collectiblle on Ebay, few on the site at any time. However, the newly issued Fairykins by Lanard( hope I spelled that right) were little cute winged fairies where a kid can press the belly and the wings flapped. We sold every one of these and would load up carriages wherever we would find them before they were pretty much gone from stores.
Another example. A toy store chain closed near us years and years ago. Some guy wound up with a trailer from this store (1980s I think) loaded with small stuff. We bought every single Colorforms travel pack he had for 50 cents or less each sold them all for 6-8 bucks. They were Sesame Street, Mickey Mouse and Barbie. They appealed to colorform collectors and to people that searched for those names and who wanted something for their kids to play with. These benefited from the search for the vintage items. Then of course you can change titles to utilize important keywords on Ebay. We had DC Comics Superheroes Iron on Transfer books. They dont make them anymore and I bought 354 of them at 40 cents each and sold them from 7-10 bucks each. They started to sell better when I changed the title to add Superman Batman but also HUGE LOT since there were 200 or more transfers in the book. This item also fits in well below because it had superhero items but had a useful purpose of making shirts.
USEFUL PURPOSE OTHER THAN JUST LOOKING GOOD
So what do I mean by utility? I guess that might not be a good word but it refers to "quality or state of being useful". Serves a useful purpose other than to look at. Collectibles or new items are great, but if you find something that also has a use for something, it serves a double purpose and can be a successful item.
For example. Newspaper log rollers are being made again but can be found lots of places for a buck or two at tag sales/flea markets. Some people collect them but some people sought them to use since heating oil costs went up. For those that dont know these roll newspapers tightly to burn like wood. Kids and even adults like things like animals. Often times a child might love dogs, cats, even monkeys. And the parents seem to have this in their head when they buy gifts. If you find an item that has some useful purpose and has one of these animals you usually have a winner.
Some examples.. We sold out of these cute little pet radios that were fluffy animals that looked stuffed but also were radios with soft bud earpieces. They were dogs, cats, monkeys and I think bears. Just the other day I looked up one of my favorite items I ever sold. It was a nail dryer that looked like a small monkey that really worked to dry young girls (and assuming some adults , nails). Someone is selling something similar now, but not as cute as our monkey was LOL. People loved these so much we got messages for a long time after we stopped selling them (we only had what we found in a store)
other examples.... A parent might just be searching for a radio and come across them and see what a perfect gift! Another popular items is the Snoopy Sno-cone Maker (use snow and sno as keywords along with snoopy. People love snoopy, and usually they are older like us and buying for someone and well his dog house sits atop a sno cone maker parents can use with their kids. So you have the cute character but an activity to do. Another example comes from a line of items we carried called Funny friends. They had a cult following since some stars had them in their rooms etc but they faded out and when the company closed we were a few minutes drive and wound up with more stock than most everyone. Completely sold out, and we got things for the most part 90% off wholesale at prices cheap enough to resell, though we did pay more for some items. The items that sold the best were Wall decals for baby rooms with dragonflies and butterflies or fish etc. They had cute searchable items (butterfly, dragonfly etc) but were also decor and in some cases we had mobiles (those were really hot). So they had utility as well.
There are fans of ladybugs, VW Bugs, and even Pigs!! We had small collectible staplers made years ago from a store that found them in the back somewhere. Sold out of all of them. Someone might just be thinking they like ladybugs and come across it. VW bug fans might be looking for something for a car and buy one for their spouse as a gift. The pig ones did surprise me though. I guess people said the pig was cute LOL
Another area that was always good was the area of Science kits , educational items. Parents love this for kids as 1- something they can teach with and 2- an activity that kids can do to keep them busy (and out of their hair for a few minutes if need be LOL). Keywords like Science kit, educational , etc work and we had some really cool ones Make your own Volcano (which you probably all have seen or remember from high school) Build your own Bridges (use architecture, kit etc as keywords) Make your own earthquake ( about as cool as you can get, had to do one myself!). So as oppose to a book on earthquakes, a kit which involved a project seems to sell better at times.
BOOKS
Another topic is books. Plenty of people way better at picking used/new books for sale (i know some that post here) but we did very well with them and I credit all my success to a bookseller here who spent tons of time with me on the phone til I could look at a bookshelf and pull books without even seeing the titles sometimes. The way I learned (which might not be as good as many others of course) was to chuck most things. Getting by the junk helps you focus. I wouldnt even consider most that were post 1980 except books about FAIRIES, MAGIC or MAGIC TRICKS, CHESS, GNOMES, etc (never had a chess book that didnt sell), or any books with more than one copyright date in them. I also quickly learned that most fiction was a non-starter here so I stuck with non-fiction (just me your mileage might vary on that). That gets you by most things. In time you find you can just look at the shelf and see the books not to look at from the side.
BOOKS ABOUT PLACES -
people associate with places they have been. Small islands, places you never heard about are usually the best but older books , especially with illustrations about places are usually good sellers.
WELL ILLUSTRATED OLDER CHILDRENS BOOKS
Usually pre-1980, WOW did they make some wonderful books. Ill have to post pictures sometime. Usually always sold if things you were familiar with like Little Red Riding Hood, Strawberry shortcake etc. The only exception to the rule I found (and there might be many) is things which strike you as unusual and edgy. Like I sold a bunch of Russian fairy tale books (I was fascinated by the darker fairy tales and illustrations in them) and these were all newer but sold. Books Like Naughty Naughty Keifer and Hedley poked my eye out (also new)inspired some teen dolls and they were weird and bought them and sold every one of them. (forgot to mention purchase prices usually no more than 2.00) in most cases 1.00 or less. Better when "fill a box for 5 bucks LOL")
FIRST EDITIONS-
I have to admit I am NOT an expert on this. But my friend is perhaps one of the best in the book business and helped me get some basics down. First rule is to eliminate multiple copyright date books. (weeds out most). Then you might think its a first but you need to check what they consider the points of the first edition. How you know it is one. This you do in reverse by looking up the title in Abebooks and seeing what booksellers list as the description of why its a first edition. These things could be the dustjacket, a typo on page 121, or whatever. Other stuff.... Sometimes you are in the field with no access to a computer and if cheap enough you give it a shot ,but research before you list. As I mentioned here before my best book was a gut instinct book. A 1880s red leather bound Dante's Inferno illustrated by Gustav Dore. I should have never sold this book LOL It was amazing. Bidding war between yale professor and someone in China. Got the "will you ship it to my friend" in VA line from the China winner and guess what, it all worked out! LOL (hard to believe would have never done that these days).
BOOKS BY SMALL PUBLISHING HOUSES-
Hard to explain this one but most university presses have smaller runs than major book houses and you just get to know these places by finding and selling books. I once sold a set by Riverside Press to a college library that was looking for a set for years. There are many smaller , well collected publishers. Wish I could go through this better for you.
************************************************************** So with all this selling. What things did I not sell. What things couldnt I part with? Ill give you my top two. I started selling on Ebay years ago by selling hockey collectibles from my own collection. In the 1970s before Russian hockey players were in the NHL they played for the Russian Red Army team (and other Russian teams). They came over and played against teams in the NHL and usually kicked the snot out of them LOL Well, in the early 1970s they only played against a handful of AHL (lower league) teams and one of them was our very own New Haven Nighthawks. There were letters from Russia to our mayor , from the parent team the Minnesota North Stars to the team manager etc and there were hockey programs for these games with all this info, sold out games and I was there as a kid with my dad. I had 3 out of the 4 or maybe 4 out of 5 programs for these games. The last one came up on Ebay and I missed it . Luckily my secretary at the time emailed the guy in Russia that won it and told him she would pay him double for it and got it for me! I now have what I believe it the only complete set and because of the memory being there with my dad where we actually beat the Russians 4-3 on a shot by a guy that probably never scored another goal in his career (along with the help of the russians backhanding one into their own net slightly before that). I still remember that goal barely squeeking across the goal line (we were behind that net) and the crowd being nuts. Now thats a cool item! In any case the second one also has a good story. I was at a bookstore and picked up 9 of the 10 volumes of the Library of Inspiration and Achievement. It is a great set from the early 1900s. I didnt pay that much for it, but it was mean to talk about people who could inspire you to be a scientist, athlete etc. A year or so after I bought this set I get a call from the bookstore owner saying you will never believe it, I found a 10th volume and got it for you. She gave it to me for free! She said she believed I might have the only set of 10 around and she wanted me to have it. Right now if you search you will find just a volume or two of some of the volumes anywhere online. I bet the people that do have sets wont part with them like me! So hope this all helps some! Marty
