i sold it on ebay

[mopinko]

anyone know anything about this franchise? there is only 2 in the chicago area, afaik.
it sort of seems like a dream for me. thrift shopping, garage saling, dumpster diving, and selling it all on ebay. i don't do it now. but i seems like a really fun way to make a living.

just dreaming here, really. but i wonder if anyone here is an ebayer/dumpster diver/thrift shopper/whatever. chicago is so full of places to get good stuff for a song.

[Quakerfriend]

1. I've known a couple of people who made significant

income selling stuff on ebay. One lady I worked with was into buying and selling old dolls. She really knew her stuff, and would do it for friends and take a piece of the profit (~25%).

Just remember to pay the tax man on the income you make. I've heard they are starting to come after people for not reporting their ebay income.

[FormerDittoHead]

2. I ran some numbers and it didn't look good to me...

I'm assuming you're talking about http://www.i-soldit.com There are others as well.

The numbers I saw didn't look very good. At least for the franchise. I'd look into doing on your own out of a garage selling stuff you bought yourself at yard sales rather than selling on commission...

I did a spreadsheet on it, given the markup/commission, etc. According to my numbers, if you were to pay the rent and try to actually make a living beyond what you'd make doing retail, you'd have to turn over like 45-50 auctions a day, each for at least ~$40.00. (remember, your commission is a fraction of the $40).

Given that every item had to be photographed and a written description produced, that meant that, in an 8 hour day you'd have to "process" an auction every 10 minutes.

That means you'd have to receive the item (talk the person into selling it with you), photograph it, write up the description, tag it, put it on the shelf, box it, label it and ship it.

That's a lot to do in 10 minutes. Software and batch processing will save time, but ultimately, the only way the thing would 'work' is if you could generate enough volume to go way beyond 50 $40 auctions a day, and afford to hire someone for fairly low wages to do a lot of the work for you.

OF COURSE, it would be possible to combine an 'isoldit' franchise with other activities in the store-space, and sell you own, purchased things as well. Personally, this latter angle was the only way I saw the thing working...

[Booster]

3. In the past, I've sold a couple of things using I Sold It on eBay,

but the last time I went in with something that would have probably gotten around $40 tops, they said they were no longer taking anything that wouldn't start with an opening bid of $50. I don't know if that goes for all of the franchises, but I know I won't be taking in much anymore. My experiences before with them were very positive, and I'm sorry they changed their rules.