“Divorce Forces Sale” was the listing for a wedding dress on eBay. The seller acknowledged he thought it “looks like a $1,200 shower curtain.” That shower curtain earned the seller five marriage proposals, a guest appearance on NBC’s “Today Show,” more than eight million hits to the auction site and a winning bid of $3,850.
Larry Star had no idea when he donned the pure white wedding gown and modeled it, tattoos and all, that he would become an international celebrity. He said he only hoped to receive enough money for “a couple of Mariners tickets and a beer,” according to his eBay listing.
Star is a model of how to successfully list on eBay. As online auctions become an increasingly popular way to buy and sell, University students can make some money without setting up a yard sale.
Junior Jared Bellum regularly sells his textbooks online.
“A friend turned me on to selling,” he said. “He sold clothes and has done fairly well.”
Bellum said he is usually able to sell the books for almost as much as he paid for them. He also buys many of his textbooks online at substantial savings. Bellum said students hoping to sell their books should start early.
“You want to list before the term starts,” he said.
He also said to make sure not to list them before the term ends. The book must be sent immediately upon receiving payment, which can hurt during finals week, according to Bellum.
Http://www.ebay.com offers tips for how to be a successful seller. The site states that the most successful listings are those with photographs and good descriptions of what is being sold.
Almost anything can be put up for auction, so students should not be afraid to sell. On any given day, buyers can scour the site for items such as glass Snoopy banks, pocket recorders, ukuleles or Velvet Elvis tapestries. To become a seller, bank account information must be given to eBay. This is to ensure payment for services provided. Fees depend on what is being listed and what the initial asking price is.
University graduate Mike Rademacher is an eBay PowerSeller with 366 successful sales.
“It’s the garage sale of the world,” Rademacher said. “Anything you want to sell can be sold on eBay.”
He said the easiest items to sell are small enough to be easily packaged and mailed. Rademacher is an avid model railroader and buys and sells rare trains.
“I started buying specialty railroad cars that would take three to four years to find at swap meets,” he said.
However, Rademacher expressed caution about buying high-value items on eBay.
“You should stick to sellers that have good feedback,” Rademacher said. “If they have feedback in the high 90s and have sold lots of stuff, you should be OK.”
He said any high-value items be bought using eBay’s escrow services to avoid losing money to a crooked seller.
Ebay has had some bad feedback regarding customer service.
“Ebay’s system of complaints is very bad,” Rademacher said. “You must go through eBay procedures that make it very difficult to make complaints about sellers.”
While few students will get rich selling used twin comforters or unopened math books, a little creativity will make a listing more attractive — just think of Star at a Mariners game with a beer in one hand and $3,850 in the other.