Disneysteve's Common Cents Blog

I had 4 auctions end this week, 1 on Sunday and 3 today. None of them sold so I've got nothing to add to my challenge total.

Unless I get a half.com sale in the next 2 days, my total for February will be $175.08. That will bring my year-to-date total to $384.07.

I don't currently have anything active on ebay. I will try and list on Sunday evening as I didn't get to list last night.

I sold another book on Half.com for $7.99. That brings my February Ebay Challenge total to $175.08.

I also added up my 2008 Half.com sales. Total sales were $141.83. Profit after all expenses was $120.19. Add that to the $112.14 profit I made on ebay and my total profit for the year was $232.33. Not bad at all, but this year will be even better.

I'm working on my taxes and finally tallied up my ebay sales for 2008. I didn't do a whole lot last year. I had a burst of selling in the first quarter and then didn't do anything again until late November.

Total Sales: $515.05
Profit after all fees and expenses: $112.14

Not a lot of money but it is nearly a 22% profit margin which isn't too bad. I actually sold a number of items at a loss last year and I'm glad to be rid of them. They were purchased many years ago and have been taking up space ever since. As I've posted before, getting back on ebay is as much about decluttering as it is about making money for me.

Hopefully, this year's numbers will be a lot larger. My challenge goal is $1,200 in sales and I'm already more than 1/4 of the way there.

Even though I don't have much of anything to report, I wanted to make a post just to remind everyone of the Ebay Challenge.

I typically list on Wednesday nights. Last week, I was out on Wednesday night so I didn't list anything.

As I posted the other day, I did buy something over the weekend to resell and listed one item on Sunday (from my hotel room in Maryland). So far, no bids.

Tonight got screwed up, too, so I didn't list anything this week. I will try to get something on in the next few days.

It has been quite a while since I bought items specifically to resell. Since I'm back doing ebay regularly, I've started looking out for stuff that can be resold.

We're on vacation in Maryland this weekend and went to a local outlet mall tonight. In one store, I saw an item that I know is fairly popular. Original price was $24.50. It was on sale for $5.99. Then a store employee pointed out to me that all items with red tags were an additional 40% off. That made this item just $3.59, about 86% off original price. That made it an offer I couldn't pass up. They had 3 remaining so I bought all 3.

When we got back to the hotel, I looked the item up on ebay. One auction for this item ended today for over $26.00, and a few others have sold recently for over $20 each, so it looks like I made a good buy. I spent $11.43 for all 3 of them. If I can sell them for $20 each I'll make a nice profit, even after all fees are accounted for.

I didn't get to list one tonight. I do have my camera with me so I may list one tomorrow. I'll report my results when I do auction one.

As I've often posted, I get to do a lot of medical surveys, mostly online, that pay me pretty well. In 2008, I earned over $5,200 doing surveys. Most of them are done on no particular schedule. Sometimes, I might get 2 or 3 from the same company in a month. Other times, weeks may go by without a survey from that company.

Last year, I was invited to join one panel that has an ongoing program. Each week, they post 3 new activities to their site and I earn $50/month if I do at least 10 of them, which I always do.

A couple of weeks ago, I got an invite from a different company with the same kind of offer - do weekly activities for a set monthly amount of $50. I filled out the qualifying information and heard back today that I was accepted onto their panel.

So that makes a guaranteed $100/month I know I will get as long as I do the surveys. Of course, I still get all the intermittent stuff from 8-10 other companies. If I don't slack off, maybe I can hit $6,000 in survey income for 2009. That would certainly be nice.

I sold 2 more items on ebay tonight for a total of $30.48 bringing my February total to $167.09.

I normally list on Wednesday nights but I was out tonight so nothing listed. I might get to put a few things on tomorrow night but probably not and we're going away for the holiday weekend, so it looks like this will be an off week for ebay. I still have stuff on half.com, though, so sales are always possible.

I sold 2 copies of a book on Half.com yesterday for $7.49 each, so that adds another $14.98 to my February sales total which stands at $136.61.

No action yet on this week's ebay auctions but I'm not expecting much this time around. I put some items on that probably won't spark much interest. I'll be happy if one or two sell.

Another paycheck means another Roth contribution. This week, it was $765.00. That brings the 2009 total to $2,150, more than 1/5 of the way there.

My first ebay auctions of February ended tonight. WOW! 4 of my 5 auctions sold, which is fine, but 3 of those 4 got into major bidding wars between multiple bidders.

One item sold for $3.99 but the other 3 sold for $41.00, $31.20 and $45.44. That makes my February total so far $121.63. I surpassed my goal in just one week!

I listed 5 more items tonight but I don't expect anywhere near that much interest (or money) from this group of items.

In the midst of my ebay challenge, I'm still doing lots of medical surveys. Just a reminder that these are for physicians only, not available to the general public.

For January, I earned $306 from surveys ($300 from medical, $6 from Pinecone). Not a bad month at all.

I thought I was done for January a I didn't have any more ebay auctions ending this month. Then I checked my e-mail this morning and discovered that I had sold another book on half.com for $7.99. That brings me to $208.99 for the month.

I have 5 active auctions that end on 2/4. Right now, 2 have bids totaling $22.49, so I'll make at least that much next week. A 3rd item has 11 watchers but no bids yet. It is certainly getting a lot of attention, though. I would think at least one of those watchers will bid, so that should bring at least $4.99, my starting bid.

ETA: I got a bid on that item during the night, so that's another $4.99 at least.

My last 5 ebay auctions of the month ended tonight. All 5 sold and 2 really took off from my starting bids. The 5 items sold for a total of $70.06!

That brings my January total to exactly $201.00. That means I've already met my sales goal for both January and February. If this keeps up, I may need to raise my goal for the year.

I just finished listing 5 more items.

I sent another $675 to the ROTH last night. That brings us to $1,385 so far for 2009. Only $8,615 to go.

I just checked My Ebay. I forgot I had 2 items ending today. One sold. One didn't. The one that sold went for $19.99 to a buyer in France. It was actually an item I bought a few months ago at a yard sale to resell. I paid $5.00.

That brings my January total to $130.94 so I'm well past my January goal and have a good running start on February. I have 5 auctions ending tomorrow. 3 already have bids and all 5 have multiple watchers.

I thought I'd take a break from the Ebay Challenge posts.

My daughter had a youth group event last night so my wife and I dropped her off and headed to the casino for a couple of hours. As usual, I took a seat at an electronic blackjack table and played for a little over an hour, winning $212.50 in the process, so I was happy with that. My wife didn't fare as well and lost $74, but that still made it a winning trip overall and a nice evening out.

On the decluttering front, my wife has actually been more inspired than me lately. Two main areas that she has attacked: We have a dresser in our hallway that constantly gets stuff piled on it. She has cleared that off to where we can see almost the entire top. Just a few things remain on there. Then today, while I was out, she cleaned out one set of kitchen cabinets where we keep storage containers, water bottles, cooling racks and a few other assorted things. She threw out a bunch of containers that we no longer have lids for, lids that we no longer have containers for, and water bottles that we don't like and never use and organized everything that remained.

I keep reminding all of us that if we can organize our storage areas - pantry, drawers, closets, garage - then we will have more room to store the things we do want and be able to find them when we need them.

I shipped the one item to Argentina today. Postage was actually $2.75 less than I had charged so I'm going to give back a partial refund. I don't like to rip people off on the postage.

I still have 7 active auctions. 2 have bids. 4 of the other 5 have watchers. 2 end on 1/26. 5 end on 1/27.

Still no more half.com sales.

I need to order a roll of bubble wrap as mine is just about done. I'm debating about ordering more shipping labels. I like the convenience and clean look of labels but I know it is cheaper to print on paper and cover it with tape. I've found the labels on ebay for $13/100 instead of $23 at Staples, plus I learned how to only use half a sheet at a time instead of a whole sheet, so $13 would get me labels for 200 shipments. That's less than 7 cents per package. I think I'll probably stick with labels.

First, the good news. The buyer from Argentina who hadn't paid me yet finally paid yesterday, so I'll ship that tomorrow morning. It was a $26.00 sale so I'm glad it didn't fall through.

As of this morning, I have 7 active auctions. 2 have bids. 3 others have watchers (which I know means nothing). Also, I got a question this morning on one item asking how much it would be to ship it to Singapore, so I need to figure that out tonight and reply.

No action lately on Half.com. I did get an e-mail a couple of days ago that my most recent deposit for $77.34 was on it's way to my account.

I listed 2 items Tuesday night and 5 more last night, so I've got 7 active auctions. Surprisingly, 2 of the 7 items I listed last night at about 7pm had bids on them by 9pm. That's pretty unusual but I'm certainly not complaining.

I also added one more book to Half.com (actually 2, since I listed 2 copies of the same book).

I still have not heard from the person who won my auction last week. I gave them until today to contact me. If I don't hear from them, I will report it to ebay and send a second chance offer to the runner up bidder.

I listed 2 items on ebay last night and plan to add a few more tonight. I listed 4 books on Half.com this morning. Three are books I've sold before. One is a medical text that may or may not sell, but it didn't cost me anything.

I might have to revise my January total. One buyer has not paid for her item yet. I've sent her an invoice, a reminder e-mail and yesterday I sent a final notice giving her until tomorrow to contact me. If she doesn't, I will offer the item to the 2nd place bidder. Hopefully, that person will still want the item.

I'm glad to read that a few of you have been inspired to take up the Ebay challenge. Keep the updates coming.

This is going to be an expensive year around here.

Our garage door spring broke recently. I haven't gotten it repaired yet because it has been too darn cold to clean out the area in the garage that the service guy will need to reach to make the repair.

We have a cold water supply pipe in the basement that has sprung a pinhole leak

The toilet in my daughter's bathroom needs a new flapper.

The side entry door to the garage needs to be replaced. It is an old wooden door that is warped and won't open and close easily.

The washing machine is on the fritz. My wife went to get a load of towels out earlier and they were still all soapy. She had to run an extra rinse cycle twice, so something's wrong.

One of our alarm keypads is worn out and it is getting hard to get the keys to register, which is a problem when you've only got 30 seconds to disable the alarm.

Fun, fun, fun. The joys of home ownership.

I sent $710 to Vanguard yesterday toward my 2009 Roth contribution. I send money every 2 weeks (from each paycheck), alternating between my account and my wife's account, until they are both maxed for the year, usually around the end of June. Only $9,290 to go.

Well that didn't take long. Last nite, I posted that my auctions this week were kind of disappointing. Today, I check my e-mail and find 2 books sold on half.com. The total for those is $15.43, bringing my total for January to $110.95. So that meets my $100/month goal for January.

My first batch of auctions for 2009 are over. I'm a bit disappointed as only 2 of 6 sold even though 5 of 6 had watchers. Such is life.

Add $35.99 to my total. That puts me at $95.52 for the month, a few dollars short of my $100 goal.

I usually list on Wednesday nights but I ended up having to go out tonight with my daughter (I'm not home now) so I'll try and list tomorrow night instead. I do still have one active auction. I also have a few books that I may list on half.com (older stuff, not new books like I've been listing).

I've got half a month to make $5.00. I think I can handle that.

As of tonight:

7 active auctions
6 items have a total of 12 watchers
1 item has a bid

6 items end within 24 hours so I will have an update with new sales totals tomorrow night.

I listed one more item on ebay last night, so that makes 7 active auctions. No bids yet, but I've got a total of 10 watchers on 5 items. The first 6 items end on Wednesay night.

I just sold an item on half.com for $18.59, so that brings my January total to $59.53.

No sales yet.

No bids yet, but I've gone from 5 watchers on 4 items to 8 watchers on the same 4 items. Two items have 3 watchers each so pretty good chance that those 2 will sell. They end on Wednesday.

I just listed one more ebay item.

Nothing too exciting to report. I added 2 items to my half.com inventory and adjusted the price of one other. I lowered it by 4 cents to make it the cheapest one listed.

I have 6 active auctions on ebay that I started on Wednesday night. Four have watchers. No bids yet. If all 4 sell, that would get me almost to the $100 goal for the month. I may list some more tomorrow.

A while back, I had blogged about my ebay sales and goal for 2009 and someone suggested I post it as a challenge to encourage others to do the same.

Here's the deal. Set a personal goal for how much you'd like to generate each month in ebay sales. I would also include half.com and craigslist in the challenge. Where ever and how ever you want to sell your stuff is fine. You can even throw in your yard sales if you'd like.

My goal for 2009 is sales of $100/month average for the year. I've already had one half.com sale this week ($18.99). I haven't listed anything on ebay yet. I plan to start tonight.

Let's hear everyone else's goals and keep updating us regularly on your progress.

ETA: I remember on another site, what we used to do was put "Proud member of ..." at the end of our listings. Then we could look up each other's auctions. If you'd like to do that, just add, "Proud member of SavingAdvice.com" to the end of your listings.