Ideas On Choosing What To Buy

Recently I scanned the Internet for ideas about what are the most profitable items to purchase and resell. Most of what I learned were concepts and not actual items. My co-writer Mandy has mentioned some specific ideas about t-shirts in her last couple of blogs. This one is about concepts, with one specific. My understanding is if you come across anything that is older Starbucks, buy it. It should make a profit for you.

Back to concepts, the first idea I learned is that it can be profitable to buy items that are no longer produced. As I was thinking of things I could buy that are no longer produced I came up with the idea to buy many old style light bulbs. They will soon no longer be made anywhere in the U.S. They fit some people's lights and lamps better than the new ones, and even though the cost more you can just throw them out. There is no need to recycle as you must do with the new ones. Light bulbs break easy. Fragile is a great collection factor because that means the number of items that exist get lower practically every week. Finally they are light weight to send in the mail. Weight is a factor in buying any item you want to sell on eBay.

The second thing I learned is to research your new ideas. It turned out that my idea to buy up some of the last of the regular light bulbs was not original. Since the transition has been going on, hundreds of thousands of people have stocked up on them. This means that they will not be rare for many years. And there is no predicting if they will be a sought out item. So I decided against buying them. My next idea did not need to be researched but thought through throughly.

Thinking through your idea is important as well, the third thing I learned. When I heard stamps were going up from $.47 to $.50 I thought about investing in the Forever Stamps. Since there are 20 stamps in a pack that would mean that I would be making $.60 off a pack put probably could charge a little more and make a $1. In order to make enough money to make it worth the time I would need to buy at least 25 books of stamps and sell them all. They are very light weight also and could be mailed in a small envelope. I was thinking this was becoming a good idea. Then I thought of the future of stamps and remembered something else I had learned. Knowing the demand for an item is a huge part of the buying.

The demand for stamps is quickly dying out. I talked to a 22 year old who used a stamp maybe twice in her life. As technology grows stamps will keep growing less necessary. It might be difficult for me to sell even one full book of stamps today. I decided not to take the risk on something that might only earn $25.

Finally I decided to just keep up on reading the posts and blogs and learning about selling on eBay. Personally I find if you look at many you will find at least one article in each that help you out a bit. So, I am going to stick with items I know to be rare or that I see are selling. I shall be looking for vintage coffee cups and ViewMaster Reels at garage sales for now.

Starbucks Bearista Bears

The Starbucks coffee line of plush teddy bears includes some very cute bears dressed in nice outfits. I found a golf-themed one for a friend's birthday--the little bear was wearing a golf outfit complete with a cap, and was carrying a set of clubs. I also found a winter-themed bear wearing a puffy jacket layered over a sweater. The level of detail in the bears is very nice, and you can generally find them for just a dollar or two each at thrift stores.

As with anything else, the price varies a lot on the bears. As of the other day, I hadn't listed any on eBay yet although I'd bought a couple that I've been meaning to list. Then Trish visited a few thrift stores while I was running some errands, and she had found a bearista bear dressed in a puppy costume and carrying a Chinese lantern--it's a bear made in 2006 to celebrate the year of the dog. Turns out that there's a series of international bears themed for different years in the Chinese lunar calendar, and they are very collectible! So rather than "meaning to list" this new bear, we photographed it right away!

Here's the listing for our Chinese New Year Bearista Bear. I listed this with a pretty high fixed price because there are very few of these bears available. We'll see what happens!