Virtual Online Learning - Self Promotion Friday

If you are not a member of Virtual Online Learning founded by eBay Hall Of Famer Danna Crawford then you better sign up right now so you can particapate in Virtual Speak UP.

Virtual Online Learning or VOL is a great group of people helping each other become more successful on eBay. I have been selling on eBay for over 10 years and it has become my full time job. I know eBay inside and out and I know how to make money on eBay so I wouldn't waste my time if I didn't believe in this group. If you read my posts you can see that I practice what I preach, I am not one of these bloggers who lost touch with eBay and are only looking for people to click on links and promote items. All of my post are backed up with my own items that I sell.

This is taken from http://virtualonlinelearning.blogspot.com/ about tonight's Speak Up.

We are live, the first Friday of every month! Call in Tonight and join us for our Virtual Speak Up and promote your Business! Open Mic for 5 to 10 min depending on how many callers we have BUT the main thing is for you to be a part of the show and receive your spot of FREE ADVERTISING!

Our sessions are free for downloading at iTunes and many of us bloggers at VOL use the segments as blog posts. We embed the player (which you can do too) into our blog posts and BLOG about a few of the callers so, don't miss this awesome chance to CALL in and SPEAK UP!

VirtualSpeakUp.com Mark your calendar now, the first Friday of every month:
8:00 PM EST
7:00 pm CST
6:00 PM Mnt
5:00 PM pst

NOTE: follow our members tweeting using the hashtag: #volm We may be tweeting about YOU when you call in :-)

Virtual Online Learning Monthly Blog Challenge

I am very excited to participate in the http://www.virtualonlinelearning.com/ Blog Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to add 5 new blog posts today (September 30th 2011.) I took the summer off from blogging, but I am back now with a lot to share.

A little info about Virtual-Online-Learning (VOL).

VOL is run by Danna Crawford aka Power Selling Mom. If you are not familiar with Danna, then you should visit her main website http://www.powersellingmom.com/. Danna is everywhere you look when it comes to eBay. Danna is a member of the eBay Hall of Fame and has almost as many followers on Twitter as some Hollywood celebrities, so she must be doing something right. Click here to follow me on Twitter and help me catch up to Danna.

For a $99.99 LIFETIME membership fee you get so much information. So check it out and enjoy my posts today. As always your comments to my posts make this blog more interesting for everyone and keeps me going. Thank you for your support.

Setting eBay Goals

My eBay business is much more productive when I set goals. I know selling on eBay is very unpredictable and 1 week I can have a bunch of new consignment clients and 50 new thrift store finds. So for me it is hard to set goals far in advance, but I find that I get a lot more done when I set goals for the day or even for the upcoming week. One example is yesterday I participated in eBay Power Listing Day "PLD" Challenge on Virtual Online Learning. My goal was 15-20 new listings of old items that I had lying around. I beat my goal for the day and listed 21 items from scratch in about 3.5 hours.

If I didn't start my day with a goal in mind I might have listed a few items then jumped to something else then started researching new ways to make money on eBay. Too much wasted time and by the end of the day I would of felt like I didn't accomplished much. So for 2011 try and set at least 1 goallllllll for each day and challenge yourself to meet that goal.

Here are a few listings from my fellow Virtual Online Members who participated in the PLD Challenge. As you can see by their feedback rating they take eBay seriously. So check out the listings below if not to bid at least to see how sucessful eBay sellers list.

Fine Line Jigsaw Puzzle I LOVE A PARADE Johnson 750 New

R.E.M. Live At Olympia Dublin 2007) promo stickered CD

Lot of 72 Hot Wheels 1st Editions, Series,1991-1998 MIP

Good Luck,

John Paul

www.ASAPsellsIT.com

Thrift Store Find of the Month - September 2010

My first attempt at selling records was a good one. I had wrapped up my visit at the Thrift Store and as I was walking out the door, out of the corner of my eye I saw a Beatles Album. There were a bunch of them, so I took a shot at $1.00 each.


17 sold for $104.72

A nice little profit of $87.72 before fees.

I also purchased (2) Guns N' Roses Records for $1.00 each


They sold for $28.99 & $20.50 individually.

Some Tips:

• Ship records in the USA via USPS Media Mail.
• Invest in some boxes specifically made to ship records. They are a pain to ship if you don't have the right box size. This looks like a pretty good deal.

http://cgi.ebay.com/LP-VINYL-RECORD-MAILER-BOX-50-PK-SCRAPBOOK-PICTURES-/300476156695?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f5c64b17

If you want to learn more about Selling Records on eBay you should join us over at Virtual Online Learning We will be having an online meet-up this Thursday Evening Oct. 7th at 8 pm Eastern time about selling records on eBay. So far there are about 30 people attending, so you know you will learn a thing or two.

Good Luck,

John Paul

Welcome Danna Crawford to Vitamin eBay

I am proud to announce that PowerSellingMom Danna Crawford has signed on to be a monthly contributor to Vitamin eBay. Danna will be focusing her posts on TIME SAVING tips. I believe this might be the single most important aspect to becoming successful on eBay. If you don't manage your time well eBay can become very overwhelming. And who better to share her TIME SAVING tips than Danna. Here is a short video about Danna.



I am a member of http://www.virtualonlinelearning.com/ which was started by Danna in 2009. It is a great site where everyone shares ideas and learns from each other. Every time I visit the site I get more and more motivated to become a better eBayer so I strongly recommend that you join.

John Paul

My Top 10 Thrift Store Shopping Tips

The final post of the day #5. Bad weather in NYC, my wife was stuck in traffic for over 3 hours and we have a 4 month old so I am just getting this post up in time.

Here is a list of my Top 10 Thrift Store Shopping Tips:

1. Download an eBay application to your cell phone. You will come across thousands of brands that you have never heard of and you will have a hunch that it will be a good seller. It's important to be able to check eBay completed items right on the spot to see if it is worth buying. Most thrift stores do not accept returns.
2. Check the kid’s section for adult clothing. I have found so many high end Women’s jeans in the kids section because they look so small. Also a good section to look for cycling jerseys and vintage t-shirts that may have shrunk over time. Plus it doesn’t hurt to find a pair of True Religion kid’s jeans.
3. Bring a tape measure with you. It is important to be able to measure jeans. Jeans with a longer inseam are more sought after. Unless it is really high end pair (example True Religion) try and stay with an inseam of 30” and over.
4. Check the items that you are interested in near a window before buying. If you look at the clothing in natural daylight you will have a better chance of seeing stains especially on dark color clothing.
5. Make yourself aware of half price days. This is a no brainer. Most thrift stores will offer a half price day or a half off that color tag for the day.
6. Ship clothing items in tear proof poly mailers. You will save on the weight if you use these instead of using a box. You can purchase them in bundles on eBay for around .12 each. It is a good investment.
7. If possible ship jeans domestically in priority flat rate envelopes. It will lessen the shipping costs for people who live on the opposite coast then you.
8. Visit websites like HonestForum.com to familiarize yourself with high end brands. You will definitely come across knockoff items. If you know what to look for you will limit the chances that you purchase a fake item. Also check out the reviews and guides section of eBay for advice.
9. Do not mix business with pleasure. If you are going to be serious about reselling thrift store items on eBay, do not start shopping for yourself while at the store. Set a goal and go for it.
10. Be Patient. You will have some down days, but trust me the longer you do this and the more you learn you will eventually be flying through the racks finding items that will bring you good money.

BONUS TIP

You might want to start a new eBay user id to sell your thrift store finds. Make it a clothing only store and you will get a good following if you offer unique items and offer great service. Offer incentives for repeat buyers like free shipping or a discount off their next purchase.

Good Luck

John Paul

Thrift Store Find of the Month - August 2010

My 4th post of the day. My site visits are up and I see I have 5 new followers, so this blogger challenge has turned out to be excellent exposure so far..

To my new followers, I like to post my top earning Thrift Store Find for each month. I know I should have posted this at the beginning of September, but here it is a couple of weeks late. For all my top monthly Thrift Store Finds click here.

Paige Premium Maternity Jeans
Sold for $56.00


August was probably my slowest Thrifting Month of the year. I spent a lot of time concentrating on my consignment business. http://www.asapsellsit.com/.


But I still found this great pair of maternity jeans for $4.99. Check out my post on designer maternity jeans for helpful hints on finding maternity jeans at thrift stores. Look for the same brands that bring in top dollar as regular high-end jeans. True Religion, Paige, Rock & Republic, etc. Avoid common labels like Motherhood Maternity, H&M Mama, Gap.


Good Luck


John Paul

Looking For Guest Bloggers.

Since we are in the middle of a Blogger Challenge, I figure now is a great time to look for Guest Bloggers.

If you would like to be a Guest Blogger send me an e-mail to asapsellsit@aol.com or leave a comment below. Blog posts should be eBay related. It could even be an old post from your own blog.

Some ideas that my readers would love are:

• Thrift Store / Garage Sale Finds
• Where to find Items to Sell on eBay
• eBay Shipping Tips
• eBay Time Management
• Your Own Tips & Tricks

Of course you can include links back to your blog, web-site or eBay store. So it will be great exposure to new readers.

John Paul

Thrift Store Item 2 Sell - Dinnerware

Every thrift store in my area always has a bunch of dinnerware items in stock. I admit it is not the first area I go to when I walk into a Thrift Store, but I have been ending my visits in that section and have come across some great finds. I have added pictures of some of those finds below.

Plates are usually just stacked in bunches so it takes some time to carefully look through the plates because you don't want to be that person who breaks something because you know every body in the store will turn to look at you. Dinnerware items are usually marked on the bottom. This is where you have to be prepared by researching before you go or by using your eBay app on your cell phone.

A few names you should look for are Fire-King, Fiestaware, Russel Wright. Sometimes you just need to take a shot on something that looks unique to you. I did some researching of my own and found this auction to be interesting. That is an idea of something you might never think of if you saw it but why not take a shot.

Here are those completed items that I found thrifting. Great profit as these items were between .99-$2.99 each.
Good Luck,

John Paul

VirtualOnlineLearning.com Blog Challenge

I am very excited to participate in the http://www.virtualonlinelearning.com/ Blog Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to add 5 new blog posts today (September 16th 2010.) I know I have been falling behind on my posts lately, so hopefully this will get me going again.

A little info about Virtual-Online-Learning (VOL).

VOL is run by Danna Crawford aka Power Selling Mom. If you are not familiar with Danna, then you should visit her main website http://www.powersellingmom.com/. Danna is everywhere you look when it comes to eBay. Danna is a member of the eBay Hall of Fame and has almost 27,000 followers on Twitter, so she must be doing something right. That's about 26,500 more than I have. Click here to follow me on Twitter and help me catch up to Danna.

For a $50.00 LIFETIME membership fee you get so much information. So check it out and enjoy my posts today. As always your comments make this blog more interesting and keeps me going. Thank you for your support.


John Paul