It’s been a while since we have posted an eBay flip, not because we have not had any (remember, a big chunk of how we make our living by selling items online on eBay.com and Amazon.com) but because I have not taken the time to share a story on this blog in a while.
Sorry!
The Extraordinary eBay Flip
Well this one is a whopper of a flip – probably our biggest thrift store find ever. It started about 1.5 years ago in a tiny thrift store in our rural town. (The thrift store closed about a year ago). I was poking around the store hoping to find fun printed t-shirts to recycle into sewing projects and I wondered over to the housewares area. For some reason I happened to look over at the art and frames that were stored in an old magazine rack. There was this print, in a cruddy broken frame complete with a big cracked glass front. It was $3. I usually skip framed pieces but I saw this one was signed and numbered and it just looked like a one of a kind piece so I bought it.
I brought it home, took it out of the broken frame and took some photos. I did a little research and found out more about the artist, Rolf Nesch. He was an expressionist artist, especially noted for his printmaking. Born in Germany, he moved to Norway following the Nazi takeover in 1933. He was born in 1893 and passed away in 1975. 
I took very detailed photos (a big plus for any eBay listing) and listed the piece on the auction format on eBay with a starting price of $999 and had many people look at it, but no one placed a bid.
We kind of figured that may happen because it was so expensive so when the auction ended with no bidders I relisted it again but this time did it as a fixed price listing for $1599 with a best offer option. You can take a peek at the eBay listing here. We love this kind of eBay listing because it opens the door for bargaining. People interested in the item can submit and offer through eBay and see if we will take less; we have the option of accepting their offer, declining the offer or coming back to them with a new offer. It’s kind of like bargaining at a garage sale but you do it online.
Anyway, the piece of art sat up for sale for a long time. We could see people were looking at it, but no one submitted an offer for over a year. Then right before Christmas someone submitted an offer for $600 and we counter offered for $900. The potential buyer did not accept and Jim and I were kicking ourselves thinking maybe we should have just settled for the $600. After all, the item only cost us $3!
Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago when we were contacted by a buyer in Germany. He offered $950 for the item if we would include free shipping. SOLD! We accepted the offer and carefully packaged up the piece and delivered it to the post office. We used Express Mail to ship it so it would be delivered quickly (in less than one week); shipping ran about $69.
Can you believe it?
Once it was shipped we tracked the progress of the box from our tiny little village all the way to Germany. We were in communication with the buyer because we wanted to be sure the item arrived safely and that he was happy. It did, and he was. Here is a nice note he sent:
We feel very blessed about this crazy thrift store to eBay flip and wanted to show you that it does happen. Gems are out there to be found and flipped online for profit, you just have to look. Most of the time you will find more ordinary items to resell like name brand clothing, electronics, collectibles, etc. Like we said, this is our best eBay flip ever! You can do this too, you can sell items online for extra income. We started our path to online selling as a hobby.
Check out more You Sold That For How Much stories here.
Jim and Kelli,
I love your “flip” stories. They tend to make me curious though. If you sell for others on ebay, how do you go about charging a commission? Do you base it on the price of the item and what you’re expecting to get for it? Do and the seller sign any kind of contract? Will you sell most anything for anybody or are there things you must turn down? How does a person go about contacting you if they are interested in having you sell something for them?
We do charge a set percentage commission, a flat fee. There is a contract that the sellers sign that spells out all the details. We do not sell automobiles and prefer not to deal with large pieces of furniture that can not be easily shipped however in the past we have sold that type of thing locally for others. If anyone is interested they can reach out to us via email. I hope that helps explain the process.