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A Quick and Easy Way to Double Your Profits on eBay

I’m a great fan of buying big bundles of collectables at auction and relisting them individually on eBay where very often the resale price of just one or two items on eBay might fetch back the entire sum I paid for those goods, and maybe a whole lot more.  In fact I personally guarantee, for any eBay seller worth his or her salt, what you read about now is THE best way to make a part-time or even full-time living on eBay.

And that means when I see drawers packed with guide books, shoeboxes packed with cigarette cards, tea chests filled with early vellum documents, and in today’s case a suitcase packed with enamel badges, then I’m ready to bid crazy sums of money just to get hundreds or thousands of small collectibles to search through and find that one item that fetches a two or three figure sum on eBay.

I’m not going to say it’s easy, or that it can be done in a day, or that it’s always an enjoyable task – but I can tell you this idea is always profitable, sometimes very profitable indeed.

And so last week when I paid $200 for a  suitcase packed with cabinet portraits, the week before when I paid $1,000 for a tea chest packed with 19^th century ephemera, and the week before that when I bought 1,000 plus enamel badges in a Harrod’s green and gold carrier bag for just $20, each time I was pretty sure I’d make my money back very quickly and hopefully add two or three hundred dollars, maybe three or four thousand to my bank account.  And it won’t take long to happen!

That’s because I work hard, I work long hours; because I like working hard, because I choose to work long hours.

And that work and time and energy always pays off!

So anyone who’s just too lazy for words had better stop reading this article now; the rest of you please read on because I’m going to show you how to turn a relatively small investment into a handsome profit!

The trick is to buy lots of tiny items, things that don’t cost much to post, which fit into small packages and which do not occupy much room in the house or garage.  More important still, choose collectable items, the kind of things that two or more people worldwide would like to own and which might create a bidding war on eBay.

Virtually all small collectibles work well using the concept I’ll tell you about today, but I’ll use enamel badges as my example.

I’ll begin by telling you how I personally tackle the process of buying and dismantling and finally selling huge bundles of badges, then I’ll give you a few tips for starting your own small items, high resell value business on eBay.

The first thing I do with a big collection is research the subject on eBay, usually eBay.co.uk, but possibly other country sites if my items have international or specific country appeal.

I start by keying my subject’s umbrella term into the search box on eBay’s home page, in this case ‘badge’.  Then I check out some of the listings on the following few pages and I’m looking to find which eBay selling categories are most appropriate for whatever I have just bought.  In the case of badges in general I find in the UK they go under ‘Collectables > Badges / Patches’, where they subsequently sub-divide into items categorised as – with current listing numbers in brackets:

Enamel Badges (8,784)

Military Badges (8,311)

Club/ Association Badges (6,815)

Other Badges (5,805)

Novelty/ Message Badges (6,911)

Advertising Badges (3,024)

Character Badges (3,192)

Sport Badges (1,583)

Patches (3,023)

Medical/ Nursing/ Red Cross (272)

National Badges (3,936)

Celebrity Badges (1,489)

Golly Badges (1,119)

Pewter Badges (1,892)

At this stage I’ll sidetrack a little and tell you when you see any item with sub-categories containing hundreds or thousands of listings that’s the sign of a very popular, highly collectable, and potentially very high price product. 

That’s because eBay does not dedicate a complete section of its site to a product that doesn’t usually sell and at high prices.

Notice too on that list of sub-categories the likes of Golly Badges, Military Badges and Advertising Badges, which I personally consider the most collectable and highest priced of all badge types, especially in the UK.

When I have a rough idea of where my items will be listed on eBay I then do an advanced search to check out likely resale prices.  To do that I click on ‘Advanced Search’ top of any eBay page, next page write ‘badge’ into the top box, then I choose ‘Collectables’ from the drop down menu at ‘In This Category, then I tick the box marked ‘Completed Listings’.  Next page I choose ‘Price: Highest First’ from the drop down menu at the right side of the page, just above the first item listed.

From the page that comes next I look for prices colored green indicating items that did sell, and I ignore items with prices colored red meaning those items went unsold.  I’m looking for a general idea of which items in my bundle might fetch high prices and which I should research further.

Then I close my Internet connection and find a big table or floor to work on, well away from dogs and kids who might think my badges are playthings and ruin my treasures.

Next I begin sorting through badges, one by one, separating any I think might be valuable from those I know very little about – yet – all based on my recent research.

Then I will probably list my potentially most profitable items right away, purely because my research is still fresh in my mind and I want to make back as much of my investment as possible, as fast as possible.

Once I’m finished listing I sort the other items into bundles according to subject, such as football, cricket, dogs, cats, topographical locations, circus, and so on, and so on, and so on.

Then I go back to eBay and do an advanced search for likely resale prices of specific items, such as circus badges, and so on.  Any I think might be valuable I list right away.

By this time I’ve almost certainly made back my investment, but there’s another task I carry out to isolate potentially very valuable from probably worthless items.  That task is to identify duplicate items, because valuable items are not usually available in high quantities.  I’ll still do an advanced search on those items, however, but just a quick one, and only in case the original owner managed to locate rarities on a regular basis. 

But if it turns out my duplicated badges are relatively common then I won’t list them separately.  That would take too much time, would cost too much in listing fees, and I probably would not make enough money for the time and expense incurred.  So I look for some reason to bundle inexpensive duplicate badges, such as all military items, all printed with the same year date, all relating to dogs, all relating to trains.  And then I sell those bundles on eBay.

Now I’m left with individual badges that might include rarities, and for that reason I begin checking their potential value on and outside of eBay.

Google is the best place to check potential values and the best way to do this is by clicking on ‘Images’ top of Google’s home page, then next page describe your badge in the search box.  Almost certainly any badge you find resembling your own will be accompanied by a web site address for someone selling or evaluating a similar item and that’s where your research comes up trumps!

Now, a few tips to help you get the best from those badges:

*  Robertson’s Golly Badges are hugely collectable and can fetch hundreds of pounds each, especially relating to extrinsically collectable subjects such as cricket and golf, exhibitions and military units.

*  Pre-war (2^nd World War) Robertson’s badges are especially collectable and can fetch very high prices, such as one depicting a Derbyshire Cricketer that recently fetched £625.00 on the UK site.

*  What we in the UK call ‘Badges’ Americans usually call ‘Pins’.  And what they call ‘Badges’ are usually metal or fabric items worn by military and government officials, such as police and firefighters, army and naval officers, police and coastguard service men and women.

*  Some very high price badges can look very ordinary and be quite modern, such as a 2004 Greetings Pin from Rome produced by Hard Rock Café, which sold recently for £205.00.  So just because it’s modern, you should still check its likely resale value before assuming it’s a dud.

*  Scout badges, metal or fabric, have a major collector following, especially relating to Jamborees, for which prices of one hundred dollars or more are common on eBay.co.uk

*  Motoring organizations such as the A.A. or R.A.C. on metal badges, especially older types, can fetch high prices on eBay.co.uk, as can those from specific makers such as Rolls Royce and Bentley.

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